Blue Dragon: The Chunin Exam
by Archdemon Slayer
Summary: This is during the Chunin Exam arc of the Naruto series. Rin, my OC from my fanfics, and Jiro go into the Leaf Village. There, they learn about the upcoming Chunin Exam and want to do it to become stronger. Next update may take awhile, so please bear with me
1. Chapter 1

"So Jiro. What do you think of this village so far?" Rin asked. She and Jiro had been traveling when they entered the Leaf Village. They were now sitting on the middle branch of a tree near a fence.

"How should I know? We've only been here for an hour," Jiro replied

"Just wondering," Rin said, kicking her legs back and forth in absolute boredom. She wanted to pick a fight so badly right now just to add a little excitement to the day. Shouts suddenly grabbed Rin and Jiro's attention and they went lower to see what was going on.

A guy in a black cat-like suit was holding a brown-haired boy with goggles and a large blue scarf. From the looks of thing, the bigger guy was pretty pissed at the smaller kid. A blond-haired girl was asking the guy with the black suit to knock it off. A blond haired boy was demanding the little kid be released. There was also a pink-haired girl and two smaller kids there, too.

"Wanna have some fun, Jiro?" Rin asked, a mischievous smile on her face.

"Let's do it," Jiro replied with an eager smile. Just as the boy in the black suit was about to punch the smaller kid, Jiro kicked the guy in the face while Rin rescued the little boy. She set the kid down and punched the guy three times in the stomach before kicking him into the fence.

"Kankuro!" the blond girl shouted.

"I'm okay, Temari," Kankuro groaned, getting up slowly. Then a black-haired boy wearing a blue shirt came out of nowhere and kicked Kankuro in the stomach.

"I'll kill you punks!" Kankuro snarled, starting to pull off the bandaged bundle off of his back.

"Enough, Kankuro," a voice ordered. Everyone turned their heads to see a red haired boy with a gourd on his back standing upside-down on the bottom tree branch.

"B-but Gaara!" Kankuro stammered. "These punks, they-"

"Shut up or I'll kill you," Gaara threatened. He vanished and reappeared a moment later next to Kankuro and Temari.

"Hold on!" The girl with the pink hair said. "You guys are from the Sand Village, right? Why are you here in the Leaf Village."

"We're here for the Chunin Exam," Temari replied, holding up a card.

"The Chunin Exam?" the girl echoed.

"Well, I've never heard of the Chunin Exam, believe it," the blond boy said.

"Oh, I believe it alright. That you're totally clueless," Temari smirked.

"Hey, boss," the boy that had been picked on said. "Those are the exams that every Genin has to take in order to become a full-on Chunin."

"Oh, well why didn't you say so? I am so there!" The blond exclaimed.

'From the looks of things, this Chunin Exam thing must involve fighting. Sounds like my kind of party!' Rin thought. She turned to Jiro. "Wanna do them?"

"Sure," Jiro replied. The three Sand ninja turned to leave when the black-haired boy stopped them.

"You!" the boy exclaimed. "Identify yourself!" Temari turned around.

"You mean me?" she said sweetly, gesturing to herself.

"No, him," the boy said, pointing to Gaara. "The one with the gourd on his back."

Temari and Kankuro turned to Gaara, who turned to face the black-haired boy.

"My name is Gaara of the Desert," Gaara replied. "I'm curious about you too. And about you two with the swords. Who are you?"

"I am Sasuke Uchiha," the black-haired boy replied.

"I'm Rin, of the Drake Clan," Rin said.

"I'm Jiro," Jiro added. After a moment of silence, the blond boy broke it.

"I bet you're dying to know my name, right? !" he exclaimed, pointing his thumb to himself.

"I couldn't care less," Gaara replied. Rin snorted in laughter. Gaara and the other two jumped away. The pink-haired girl walked over to Rin and Jiro.

"My name's Sakura," she said with a smile before glaring at the blond. "And the idiot over there is Naruto." Naruto had couched down next to the boy that was picked on.

"Hey, Konohamaru," Naruto said, "do I seem uncool or something?"

"Well, compared to Sasuke, yeah you're pretty lame," Konohamaru replied.

"Gah!" Naruto exclaimed. "You're not gonna show ME up, Sasuke!"

"Back off, loser," Sasuke replied.

"So who's in charge of this village?" Rin asked Sakura.

"That would be the Third Hokage," Sakura replied. "He's in that large red building over there."

"Thanks," Rin replied. "Let's go, Jiro." She and Jiro ran into the building that Sakura had pointed out to them. Two ninja stopped them.

"What do you two want?" one asked.

"We need to see the Third Hokage," Rin answered. The ninja nodded and led Rin and Jiro into a room. At the end of it was a desk. At the desk was and elderly man. The two ninja stood at either side of the door.

"Hello, Third Hokage," Rin greeted. "We would like to ask you if we could partake in the Chunin Exam."

"Why?" the Hokage asked. "You two aren't even ninja, much less a full three-man squad."

"We've fought countless battles before and saved the world, too," Rin answered.

"We're Shadow Wielders," Jiro added. A moment later, Worgen and Minotaur appeared.

"Hey, Rin," Worgen said. "Mind telling me why you're summoning me here?"

"That's right, Jiro," Minotaur added, his ears twitching, "Don't tell me that the reason you're summoning me is similar to when you used me as nothing but a glorified fishing pole when you and Zola were catching Montonta fish."

"What in the world. . ." was all the Hokage said as he stared in shock at the two Shadows. The Shadows vanished.

"Well?" Jiro asked.

"I hope you two are aware that you could lose your lives in this. And you two are at a greater disadvantage because you're one person short of a full squad," the Hokage said.

"We're aware and willing to take the risk," Rin replied. The Third Hokage nodded and pulled out two forehead protectors. Both had a leaf symbol on them. "These will make others recognize you two as Genin from this village. Put them on."

Rin tied hers around her neck while Jiro tied his over his belt.

"Go to the academy tomorrow at 3:00 p.m. in room 301 and get your application filled out," the Hokage explained. Rin and Jiro nodded and headed out the building.

* * *

**Okay, this will be based off of the English dubbed version of the Chunin Exam arc in the Naruto series. Please review!**


	2. Chapter 2

"What in the world is going on?" Rin asked when she and Jiro got to the entrance of room 301 the next day. A large group of ninja were clustered around the doorway. Two ninja were guarding the door. One of them knocked back a boy with a bowl-cut hairstyle, a green bodysuit, and the largest eyebrows Rin and Jiro had ever seen in their lives. A brown-haired girl with her hair in two buns and wearing a pink shirt crouched down next to the boy.

"You're taking the Chunin Exam, but you can't even get past us? !" one of the ninja guarding the door said. He had two blades on his back.

"Why don't you just give up now before you get hurt," the other added.

"Yeah! I think I hear your mommy calling you!" the first one laughed.

"Please let us go through! We're supposed to go in there!" the girl said. She got up and walked towards the ninja, but was knocked back.

"That's harsh. . ." one ninja in the large group said.

"Did you say harsh?" the ninja with the blades asked. "Don't kid yourself! We're only being nice by comparison! The Chunin Exam will make THIS look like a picnic!"

"Some of you won't survive the exam, others will be wrecked for life, and some of you may go crazy!" the other said. "For Chunin, it's always life-or-death!"

"You think it's a joke? !" the first laughed. "Chunin are qualified to LEAD missions! The lives of your squad are in your hands, so you'd better be tough enough to take the heat! Delicate little girls don't belong here!"

"We're just thinning out the herd!" the second added. "You won't pass anyway, so just go home and play with your dolls!"

"Real nice speech," Sasuke said. Rin hadn't even notice his squad walk in. "Now both of you step aside and let me through. And reverse the genjutsu while you're at it; we can see through your illusion anyway. We're going to the THIRD floor."

"What does he mean? We're ON the third floor!" one ninja whispered to another.

"Yeah, I know," the ninja replied.

"Well, well!" the ninja with the weapons said.

"So you noticed a genjutsu, huh?" the other asked.

"Go ahead. Tell them, Sakura," Sasuke said, turning to his teamate. "I'm sure you saw it before anyone else did."

"Huh?" was all Sakura said.

"You have the sharpest eyes and the best analytical skills on our squad," Sasuke replied. "You must've seen it from a mile away."

"I must have?" Sakure asked. Then her face brightened. "Well, sure. Of course! I saw it right away! This is only the second floor!"

"Right!" Naruto agreed. The 301 sign changed so that now it read 201. Some of the ninja gasped.

"Hmph!" the ninja with the weapons said. "Well, aren't we the smart ones. So you noticed an illusion. Now let's see you deal with THIS!" The ninja threw a kick a Sasuke, who threw one of his own. Right before they made contact, the boy with the bowl-cut hair got in between them, catching both kicks.

'How'd he DO that? !' Sakura wondered. 'I thought he was just some weakling getting pushed around, but he's as fast as Sasuke!'

"He's almost as fast as Saber-Tiger and Marumaro," Rin said to Jiro. Jiro didn't reply, but continued to watch the scene. The boy had released both ninja.

'He stopped my kick,' Sasuke thought. 'That's some chakra he's got in his arms.'

"Hey, what happened to the plan?" a boy with brown hair and a white shirt asked as he and the girl walked over to the boy. "I thought YOU were the one who said to keep a low profile and not let anyone see our skill level!"

"I know, but-" the boy said before turning to face Sakura while the girl shook her head.

"Never mind, it's over," she sighed.

'Hey, what happened to the bruises on his face?' Sasuke thought. 'They're gone! Were they fakes?'

The boy with the bowl-cut hair walked over to Sakura.

"I am Rock Lee. You are Sakura, right?" he asked.

"Huh?" Sakura said. Lee did the thumbs up and smiled.

"Please be my girlfriend! I vow to protect you with my life!" Lee beamed. Sakura's face went small.

"Definately. . . NOT. . ." she replied. Lee's expression went gloomy.

"Why?" he asked. Sakura's face went harsh.

"Because you're a weirdo!" she replied. Lee's head dropped. Rin sputtered as she tried holding in her laughter. Jiro was trying his best not to crack up and lose his surly reputation.

"Hey, you!" the brown-haired boy said to Sasuke. "What's your name?"

Naruto glared at them. 'Urgh! Again? ! It's always about Sasuke!' he thought angrily.

"It's common curtosy to give your own name before asking someone else's," Sasuke replied.

"Hey, you're a rookie, aren't you? How old are you, anyway?" the boy asked.

"I'm not obliged to answer," Sasuke said.

"What? !" the boy growled. Sasuke turned and walked past Naruto and Lee, who were both leaning on the wall.

"A weirdo?" Lee mumbled.

"No one ever wants to know MY name," Naruto grumbled.

'Ain't THAT the truth,' Rin thought.

"Hey Naruto, Sasuke! Let's go!" Sakura exclaimed. The three went upstairs. Rin and Jiro went upstairs, followed by the other ninja. They went into room 301. Soon, the room became crowded.

"Could be interesting," Rin said with interest.

"Let's just hope these Shadow-less losers actually give us a good fight," Jiro muttered in response, narrowing his ocean-blue eyes at all the ninja around them.

"Just plese don't get over-confident," Rin sighed. "I'm pretty sure that's the reason you kept losing to Delphinium."

"That was because Minotaur hadn't been revived yet!" Jiro protested.

"Oh I'm sure," Rin replied sarcatically, rolling her violet eyes. Jiro let out a low growl and Rin thumped him. "Growl at me one more time and Worgen will teach you a lesson."

A half hour later, Lee walked into the room. A few minutes later, Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura came in as well. Rin and Jiro got up to greet them when a blond-haired girl wearing a purple shirt hopped up on Sasuke's back.

"Sasuke! Where have you been?" she squeeled. Sasuke narrowed his eyes at her in annoyance. "Boy you have no idea how much I was hoping you'd show up here! I've missed those good looks of yours!"

Sakura's face went furious. "Hey you porker, back off he's mine!" she shouted. The blond girl got off Sasuke.

"Something about this scene reminds me of how Kluke used to react when Bouquet hopped all over Shu," Jiro muttered.

"Except now she's too woried about Andropov to notice," Rin added. They turned their focus back to the scene.

"Ms. Forehead! They let YOU in? ! Still got those frown marks on that billboard brow I see," the girl said.

"Leave my forehead out of it!" Sakura shouted. The girl stuck out her tongue and pulled down her bottom eyelid.

"Oh, it's you guys," a black haired boy said. A fat boy eating chips was next to him. "I knew this was going to be a drag, but I didn't know it was gonna be this lame."

"So all three stooges are here?" Naruto said sarcasticly.

"Hey, you know what pipsqueak?" the black haired boy said before sighing, "Ah! Forget it! You're a waste of time!"

"Who are those guys?" Rin asked. Naruto turned to her, arms crossed, and pointed to the black haired boy.

"That's Shikamaru Nara," Naruto replied. "Always complaining, never does anything about it, believe it! The laziest kid in the acadamy." Shikamaru glared at Naruto but said nothing. The fat boy continued eating chips as if nothing happened.

"That's Choji Akimichi," Naruto continued. "AkiMUNCHY more like it. He'd eat his own head if he could!" Choji didn't seem to notice Naruto's comment, but noticed the next thing Jiro said.

"What a fata-" he broke off when Shikamaru put a hand over Jiro's mouth. Choji's ear twitched.

"Mind finishing that little sentance?" he asked menacingly. Jiro pushed Shikamaru's hand off his mouth.

"I said you're a fatass!" Jiro shouted. Shikamaru tackled Choji in an instant and turned to Jiro.

"You idiot! Choji'll kill you for saying that!" Shikamaru shouted before turning to Choji. "Calm down! You can kill him later, okay? !" Choji stopped struggling and glared at Jiro.

"I'll let you off the hook for now, but I'm so going to kill you when the fighting starts!" he snarled. The blond haired girl continued to taunt Sakura.

"Sorry, but Sasuke's all mine!" she said, pulling down her bottom eyelid and sticking her tongue out again.

"That's Ino Yamanaka," Naruto said. "Now SHE'S annoying! And not just because she has that same stupid thing for Sakuke that Sakura's got." Naruto had whispered that last sentance so Sakura couldn't hear.

"Hell yeah she's annoying!" Sakura growled. Ino glared at her. Three more people came over.

"Well, well!" The boy with a dog on his head said. "What do ya know? The whole gang's back together again!"

"Oh, hi Naruto," the girl with the almost white eyes said nervously.

"That girl is Hinata Hyuga," Naruto said. "She's okay, but I don't know why she gets all shy and embarrassed whenever I, like, LOOK at her! It's kanda weird!" Hinata blushed and looked away. Naruto looked over to the boy with the dog.

"That's Kiba Inuzuka and his dog, Akamaru," Naruto continued. "Forget what I said about Ino! This guy's that most annoying of all! He thinks he's SO cool!"

The last boy, one with brown hair and black glasses glanced over at Rin and Jiro.

"And that's Shino Aburame," Naruto finished. "Well, he's just weird! Kand of a mystery, but that doesn't mean HE isn't annoying too!"

"You seem to think everyone's annoying, but you really haven't checked yourself yet," RIn mumbled.

"You guys too, huh?" Shikamaru asked. "Man everyone's here for this STUPID thing."

"Yep!" Kiba replied. "Here we all are! The nine rookies! This is gonna be fun! At least for those of us good enough to make the cut," he added, looking at Sasuke. "Right, Sasuke?"

"Kiba careful you don't get overcomfident," Sasuke said.

"Just wait!" Kiba replied. "We're gonna blow you guys away! We've been training like crazy!"

'Please! Everyone SHUT UP!' Rin thought. Jiro was clearly annoyed as well.

"Just what do you think WE'VE been doing? ! Sitting around, picking daisies? !" Naruto said. "You don't know what training means!"

Hinata was twidling her fingers. "Don't mind Kiba," she said. "I'm sure he didn't really mean anything by it." Kiba and Akamaru looked over at Hinata.

'Mmm, Akamaru's looking plumper and jucier!' Choji though, taking a step toward the dog. Akamaru saw him and growled.

"WOULD ALL OF YOU SHUT UP ALREADY? ! ? !" Rin and Jiro shouted at the top of their lungs. Silence slammed down immediately and the nine turned to them.

"Hey you guys," a silver haired boy said as he walked over. "Yo ushould really listen to those two. You shouldn't go making a specticle of yourselves. Just cool it!"

"Well who asked you? !" Ino yelled. "Who are you? !"

"I'm Kabuto Yakushi," Kabuto replied. "But really, look around you. You've made QUITE an impression!" All of the other ninja in the room, including Rin and Jiro, who went to sit down with the other ninja, were glaring at them. "See those guys?" Kabuto continued, glancing over at a group of ninja. "They're from the Rain Village. Very touchy. They all are. This exam makes everyone tense. And you don't wanna rub them the wrong way right now."

"Oh," Sakura said. Rin and Jiro saw Kabuto take out a deck of cards and set it on the ground.

". . . I've got more than 200 of these," Kabuto was saying. "So you see, I haven't been completely wasting my time. They may not appear much to the naked eye. In fact," Kabuto said, taking a card and setting it down face-up, "they appear blank. I don't want just anyone seeing this stuff." He started spinning the card and a moment later a map appeared on it.

"Oh cool, a map! But of what?" Sakura asked.

"It shows how many candidates came for the exam and what village they came from," Kabuto replied. The card went blank again.

"Do you have any information on the candidates?" Sasuke asked.

"They might," Kabuto replied. "Why? Do you have someone special in mind?"

"I might," Sasuke replied.

"Well," Kabuto said, putting the card back in the deck, "I can't promise my information is complete or perfect, but I've got something on just about everyone. Including you guys of course. So which one is is? Tell me what you know about them; a description, where they're from, whatever. Anything at all."

"Gaara of the Desert, Rock Lee from the Leaf Village, and Rin and Jiro, both also from the Leaf Village," Sasuke replied.

"Nosy, ain't he?" Rin muttered. Jiro nodded.

"Man, that's no fun! You even know their names! That makes it easy!" Kabuto said. He pulled out four cards. "Here they are."

"Show them to me," Sasuke said.

"Okay," Kabuto replied. "First up is Rock Lee." He made an image appear on the card.

'I wonder how much information he's got on us. Hopefully not much.' Rin thought. She noticed Jiro beginning to get tense. She put a hand on his shoulder. "Calm down Jiro. Just imagining beating the hell out of Shu," she told him. Jiro gave a small smile at the thought of pounding his former rival. They turned their attention back to Kabuto.

"Looks like he's about a year older than you guys," Kabuto said. "Mission experience: 11 C-ranks and 20 B-ranks. His squad leader is Gai. In the last twelve months, his taijutsu has radically improved, but his other skills are pretty shaky. Last year, he got a lot of attention as a Genin but for some reason he chose not to participate in the Chunin Exam. This'll be his forst time as a candidate; same as you guys. His teamates are Tenten and Neji Hyuga."

"Sounds like Hinata and this Neji person are related," Rin said. Jiro didn't respond. Kabuto made Gaara's card appear.

"Mission experience: 8 C-ranks and get this," Kabuto said with a hint of surprise, "one B-rank as a Genin! There's not a lot more information on this guy. He was a rookie from another land, originally. But there is this: he survived every mission without getting a scratch on him."

"The dud's got a B-rank as a Genin and has never even been injured? !" Shikamaru exclaimed.

"What's the deal with this guy? !" Naruto exclaimed.

"Now for Rin and Jiro," Kabuto said. "Rin's up first." he made her card appear. "No mission experiece at all! Her teamate is Jiro. They have no squad leader either! She's from the ancient Drake Clan and is and excellent swordsman. She's not even a proper Genin or even from this village, either! She's also known as a Shadow Wielder, but I have no idea what that even is. Other 'Shadow Wielders' are Jiro and some others named Shu, Kluke, Bouquet, Marumaro, Andropov, Logi, Matilda, Delphinium, and Deathroy. Her family was killed when an orginization called Grankingdom bombed her village. She was the only survivor."

"How'd he know all that? !" Rin exclaimed.

"I suspect he knows more than he's giving out," Jiro replied. "We should be careful around him."

"How'd they get in if they aren't even real Genin? !" Shikamaru asked.

"The Shadow Wielder part let them in apparently," Kabuto replied. "Now for Jiro." He made Jiro's card appear. "Also no mission experience. He's also a Shadow Wielder and his family was killed when Grankingdom attacked his village. Like Rin, he was the only survior of the attack." The card went back to normal and Kabuto pulled out another, making another image of a map appear. "Leaf, Sand, Rain, Grass, Waterfall, Sound. From the looks of it, all sent exceptionally skilled candidates to the exam this time around. Of course, the Hidden Sound Village is small; it sprang up recently. No one knows anything about it; those guys are a mystery." Kabuto put all the cards away. "Well, you get the point. The competition's gonna be intense this year."

"So it would seem it would be enough to make you lose your confidence," Hinata said.

"Fine time to start talking like that!" Ino yelled at her.

"Do. . . you really think it's going to be tougher this year?" Sakura asked.

"Oh yeah!" Kabuto replied. "In the four years I've been coming here, I've never seen a crop of candidates with as much potential as this bunch! Yup, we've got our work cut out for us!" Rin noticed Naruto shivering.

"Is he having some sort of fit?" Rin asked. Naruto suddenly spun around to face all the ninja.

"My name is Naruto Uzimaki! And I'm gonna beat every one of you! Believe it!" He shouted.

"What an idiot!" Rin muttered. "This is SO embarrassing! I want to kill him so badly right now!" Rin noticed a blue aura coming off of Jiro and his shadow begining to stretch, taking the form of Minotaur. It was heading toward Naruto. Rin beat Jiro on the head and his shadow went back to normal. "Idiot! Do you really wanna give away our power?!"

"I was only gonna use Conquer on him!" Jiro protested. "A good electric shock would've set him straight!"

"Now's not the time to use our Shadows! Only Shu and Blue Dragon would do something THAT idiotic!" Rin yelled. She noticed three people dashing toward the group. A black haired Sound ninja leaped into the air, throwing kunai at Kabuto, who dodged. Then the one with the bandages on his head swung a fist at Kabuto, missing barely. However, Kabuto's glasses shattered and he vomited. Rin and Jiro's eyes widened.

"What the hell happened? !" Jiro exclaimed.

"He totally dodged that!" Rin agreed. A giant puff of smoke appeared on the other side of the room.

"Alright, you baby-faced degenerates! Pipe down and listen up!" a voice shouted. When the smoke cleared, several ninja were standing there. The one in front was wearing a black jacket and had two scars on his face.

"It's time to begin," he said. "I'm Ibiki Morino, your proctor. And from this moment, your worst enemy."


	3. Chapter 3

"First!" Ibiki shouted, pointing to the back of the room. "You Sound ninja! Knock it off! Who told you that you could fight? ! You want to be failed before we've even begun? !"

"Yikes! Scary and abrassive!" Rin murmured.

"Sorry, it's our first time," the Sound ninja with the bandages said. "I guess we're a little jumpy. . . sir." Ibiki smiled.

"I'll say this once, so listen up!" Ibiki shouted. "There will be no combat between candidates; no attacking each other without the permission of your proctor, and even then, the use of fatal force is strictly prohibited! Anyone who even THINKS of messing with me will be disqualified immeadiately! Got it?"

'So we can't kill someone even if they totally deserve it?' Jiro thought, glancing at Naruto.

"Hmph! No fatal force? That's no fun!" the Sound ninja who threw the kunai said.

"Now if you are ready, we will proceed to the first part of the exam. Hand over your paperwork. In return, you will each be given a number," Ibiki continued, holding up a card with the number 1 on it. "This number will determine where you will sit. We'll start the written test once you all are seated."

Rin and Jiro covered their ears when Naruto suddenly shouted, "NOT A WRITTEN TEST! NO WAY! !"

* * *

Rin and Jiro sat down in their seats. Rin was sitting next to Tenten while Jiro sat next to Sasuke.

'Let's get this done and over with so we can have some fun!' Rin thought.

Everyone, eyes front!" Ibiki ordered. "There are a few rules you need to be aware of. And I won't answer any questions, so you'd better pay attention the first time around!"

"No questions? Isn't that a bit harsh?" Rin whispered to Tenten.

"Yeah, you're telling me!" Tenten replied. Ibiki was writing the rules on the chalkboard behind him while continuing to talk.

"Alright! Rule number one: The written exam is conducted on a point reduction system. Contrary to what some of you might be used to, you all will begin the test with a perfect score of 10 points. One point will be deducted for each answer you get wrong. So if you miss three, your final score will be seven."

'So miss all ten, and you get a zero,' Jiro thought.

"Rule number two," Ibiki continued, "teams will pass or fail based on the total scores of all three members." Rin heard a bang and saw that Sakura had slammed her forehead onto the desk. When she raised her head, a giant red mark was on it.

"What? ! Wait a second! You're saying we all get scored. . . as a TEAM? !" Sakura shouted.

"Silence!" Ibiki ordered. "I have my reasons, so shut up and listen! Rule number three: The sentinals you see positioned around the room are there to watch for any signs of cheating. And for every incident they spot, they will subtract two points from the culprit's score."

"WHAT? !" Rin shouted.

"Shut up and listen already!" A sentinal snapped at her.

"Be warned," Ibiki said. "Their eyes are extremelly sharp. And if they catch you five times, you'll be dismissed before the tests are even scored. Anyone fool enough to be caught cheating by the sentinals doesn't deserve to be here. If you want to be considered Shinobi, then show us what exceptional Shinobi you can be. One more thing. If any candidate should get a zero, they'll fail the test! Then the entire team fails!" Everyone's eyes widened.

"WHAT DID HE SAY? ! ? !" Sakura shouted at the top of her lungs.

"Damn! I hope Jiro is just as good at written exams as he is at fighting," Rin murmured.

"The final question won't be given out until fiftenn minutes before the end of the testing period," Ibiki said. "You'll have one hour total! Begin!"

Everyone instantly began to do the tests. Rin looked over hers.

'Okay! Question number one," she thought. 'Okaaayy, question number two.'

'Wow! Their really pulling out all the stops on this test!' Jiro thought as he got done reading over question six.

'Each one is harder then the last one!' Rin realized. 'No way anyone could answer a question correctly in the amount of time given to us! Are they purposly TRYING to get us to cheat? !' Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Tenten move her fingers, light glinting off of sting leading up to the ceiling. Rin looked to where mirrors caught her attention. She saw Lee tie his forehead protector around his head. A little further away, Ino made a hand sign and slumped onto her desk. In front of her, Sakura suddenly picked up her paper and looked over it. A bee flew over to Shino and flew in a figure eight and Shino wrote it down on his paper. Gaara crushed a ball of sand in his hand. A guy rubbed his eyes as the sand got in them and the rest of the sand formed into an eye.

'Is everyone cheating?' Rin wondered. Then she remembered what Ibiki said: "If you want to be considered Shinobi, then show us what exceptional Shinobi you can be." his voice echoed in her head. Of course! To do the test, we had to cheat, just without doing it so the sentinals catch us!

Jiro realized the same exact thing and smiled. His shadow streched to the desk behind him and went up it. The person didn't notice as Minotaur memorized the answers written on the paper. Minotaur returned and whispered the answers to Jiro, who wrote them down on his paper. Rin and Worgen were doing the exact same thing. Rin almost laughed at how the proctors didn't notice a wolf-shaped shadow moving around the room. But then again, they probably never saw a Shadow before.

When there were only fifteen minutes left, Ibiki looked up and announced it was time to move on to the next question. "But before I give it to you, there are some more rules you need to be aware of."

'More rules? Come ON!' Rin thought.

"These rules are unique to question ten, so listen carefully," Ibiki continued. "And try not to let them frighten you."

"What does he mean by that?" Jiro murmured.

"Shut up so you can hear them," Sasuke grumbled.

"Talk to me like that one more time and I'll kill you," Jiro growled back.

"I'd like to see you try," Sasuke retorted.

"Rule number one," Ibiki said. "Each of you is free to choose not to be given the final question. It's your decision."

"Woah! So what's the catch? !" Temari shouted. "Say we don't want to do it? ! What happens then? !"

"If you choose not to take the tenth question, regardless of your answers to the previous nine, you'll get a zero. In other words, you fail," Ibiki replied. After murmurs from the other ninja about why in the world someone would refuse to take the tenth question, Ibiki continued. "Not so fast. You didn't let me finish."

'What more is there? !" Rin thought.

"If you do accept the question, but answer it incorrectly, you will not only fail, YOU WILL BE BARRED FROM EVER TAKING THE CHUNIN EXAM EVER AGAIN! ! !" Ibiki shouted the last words.

"NO WAY! !" Rin shouted.

"Hey! That's bull, man!" Kiba shouted. "It's ridiculous! What kind of bogus rule is that? ! There are lots of people here who have taken the test before!" Akamaru barked in agreement. Ibiki began to laugh.

"What's so funny? !" Jiro demanded.

"I guess you're just. . . unlucky," Ibiki replied. "I wasn't making the rules before. But I am now. Of course, if you don't want to take it, you don't have to. If you aren't feeling confident about it, then by all means skip it. You can try again next year. Now then, if you're ready, the tenth and final questin! Anyone who doesn't want to take it, raise your hand. Your number will be recorded, then you'll be free to go."

Several ninja raised their hand to leave and the number of people in the room quickly went down. Rin saw Naruto raise his hand, then slam it down.

"Don't underestimate me! I don't quit and I don't run away!" Naruto shouted. "You guys can act tough, but your not gonna scare me off! No way! I don't care if I do get stuck as a genin for the rest of my life, I'll still be Hokage someday!"

"Holly crap!" Rin muttered.

"Doesn't know when to quit, does he?" Jiro murmured. "Kinda reminds me of Shu. I like it."

"This decision is one that could change your life!" Ibiki pointed out. "If for any reason you would like to quit, now's your last chance."

"No way, I never go back on my word," Naruto replied. "That's the way of the ninja."

The remaining people began to grow confidence and became more sure of themselves. No more hands went up.

'Hmm, remarkable,' Ibiki thought. 'That little outburst has given the others some backbone. He's inspired the others into staying. 80 left, more than I expected. But I don't see anyone wavering. I think that's it.'

"Well then, I admire your determinating, if nothing else," Ibiki announced. "The rest of you remaining, there's only one thing left to do, and that's for me to tell you. . . that you've all passed the first exam!" The room got so quite that the only noise heard was a pencil dropping.

"Woah, hold on!" Sakura exclaimed, getting up. "What just happened? ! What do you mean 'we passed'? Where's the tenth question? !" Ibiki laughed.

"There never was one!" he replied happily. "Not a written one, anyway! Actually, your decision to stay was the answer to the tenth question!"

"Wait a second!" Temari exclaimed. "So the other nine you gave us was just a waste of time? ! Is that what you're saying? !"

"Oh no, not at all!" Ibiki replied. "Quite the opposite! The first nine questions had an important overwriting purpose: to test your ability to surticiously gather intelligence under the most adverse circumstances."

"Oh, well that clears up everything," Temari said sarcastically.

"Let me explain," Ibiki said. "You see, my objective was not only to test you as individuals, but as a team. And how well you function as a part of that team. That's why the test was scored on a team basis. You'd know that everything you did or failed to do would directly affect your teamates. I wanted to see how you would handle the pressure."

"Yeah, I figured it was something like that. That was why I kept my cool," Naruto said.

'Oh brother,' Rin thought. 'And this is from the guy who just made the large production.'

"The first nine questions on the test were difficult. In fact, as you may have realized, too difficult for any Genin to be expected to solve. I expect that many of you quickly came to that conclusion," Ibiki continued. "That you'd have to cheat in order to have any chance of passing. In fact, the test was designed to encourage cheating. It almost demanded it. Of course, it would have done little good unless you had someone to cheat from. So I disguised two Chunin who already knew the answers and had them sit in with you." Two people raised their hands to show that they were the two Ibiki was talking about.

"I knew it!" Rin murmured. Naruto freaked out for a moment then sat back down. People were murmuring behind his back about him.

"What's this kid's problem?" the ninja next to Jiro murmured.

"Man, I don't know," Jiro replied.

"Haha! Oh come on! I wasn't fooled for a second! You'd have to be a completet doofus to fall for that!" Naruto said.

'And that's exactly what you are,' Rin thought, sweatdropping.

"Those who were caught at it failed. Better not to cheat then to cheat clumsily," Ibiki said, taking off his forehead protector, which had covered the top of his head. Rin and Jiro stared wide-eyed like the others around him when they saw his head. "Imformation. It can be the most valuable weapon in battle. How well you gather intelligence can determine wheter a mission's a failure or a success. There'll be times when you'll have to put your life on the line to get it."

"Man, what a mess," Jiro heard Sasuke say. "Scars and puncture wounds and burn marks. What he must have endured."

'I think I'm gonna be sick!' Rin thought, putting a hand over her mouth in horror.

"Damn! I've never seen anyone THAT messed up!" Jiro murmured. Ibiki put the forehead protector back on as he continued to talk.

"Of course, you must also consider the source of your information. Intelligence gathered from an enemy is not necessarily accurate. Always bear this in mind: Disinformation can be worse than no information at all. It can lead to the death of comerades or the loss of a village. That's why I put you in the posistion where you had to gather accurate intelligence. Cheat in order to survive. And that's why those who weren't good enough at it were weeded out from the rest of you."

"Okaayy," Temari said. "But I'm still not getting what the tenth question was all about."

"You're not?" Ibiki asked, sounding a bit surprised. "The tenth question was the main point of the whole exam. Surely you see that?"

"Sure, but explain it anyway," Sakura said.

"That's right," Rin added. "If the point of the exam was to test our spying skills, then what was the point of asking us whether we wanted to stay or leave? What's the point there?"

"As I said before, the goal was not only to test you as individuals, but as part of a squad. The final question gave you two choices," Ibiki replied, holding up two fingers. "Both difficult. You could choose to play it safe and skip the question, though it meant both you and your teamates would be failed, or you could try and answer it knowing if you got it wrong, you would lose your chance of ever being Chunin. It was a no-win situation. This is just the sort of think Chunin have to face almost every single day. For example, let me give you a hypothetical mission: To steal a secret document from an enemy stronghold. You have no idea how many ninja the enemy has, or how heavily armed they are. Furthermore, you have reason to believe that the enemy expects you, and you might very well be walking blindly into a trap. Now do you have the option of taking a pass on this insane mission, of saying 'my comrades and I would rather live to fight another day'? Can you choose to avoid danger? NO! There will be many missions that would seem almost suicidal if you think about it, but we do not think about it. You think only of the goal; acheiving it through courage and discipline. These are the qualities required of a Chunin squad. Those who choose the safer of two paths, those who falter in the face of adversity, those who would put their comrades lives in jeopardy by worrying about their own, those who would save their own necks at the price of sacred honor, will never be able to call themselves Chunin! At least as long as I am here! As for the rest of you, you have successfully passed the ten questions I've set for you! You have earned the right to continue onto the next step! You have passed through the first gate! I hereby declare this part of the Chunin exam completed! There's nothing left, but to wish you all good luck."

"All right!" Naruto shouted. "We did it! That's one down!"

'Jiro and I have this in the bag,' Rin thought. 'No need to worry from this point on.'

'He's a funny one, that kid,' Ibiki thought. He snapped his head around at the window just as a black bundle burst through it. Two kunai shot out of it, sticking into the ceiling and unraveling a banner with a woman in front.

"This is. . . part of the test? !" Naruto stammered, a bit startled and freaked out.

'Ugh, jumped the garn as usual,' Ibiki thought.

"Heads up, boys and girls! This is not the time to be celebrating!" the woman announced. "I'll be your next proctor, Anko Mirashi! Ready for the second test? GOOD! ! LET'S GO FOLLOW ME! !"

"Man she's annoying!" Jiro said. Everyone in the room just stared at Anko, a bit freaked out. Ibiki peeked around from behind the banner.

"You're early. . .again," he said. Anko blushed and scowled, going white-eyed.

'Great! Screaming nutcase! Reminds me of Naruto,' Sakura thought.

"How many ARE there?" Anko asked, turning to Ibiki. "Ibiki, you let all these guys pass? Your test was too easy! You must be getting soft!"

"Or it could be a stronger crop of candidates this year," Ibiki replied.

"Hmm, they sure don't look it," Anko said smugly. "Trust me, when I'm done with them, more than half will be eliminated." Rin's eyes widened. More than half? !

"Huh? More than half, really?" Sakura said frightened.

"This is gonna be fun," Anko said. "Alright, you maggots have had an easy time, but things are gonna be different first thing in the morning. I'll let your squad leaders tell you where you're supposed to meet me. Dismissed."

* * *

"Woah, what IS this place? !" Rin exclaimed the next morning. She, Jiro, and the other ninja that passed were gathered in front of a gate enclosing a giant forest.

"This is the location for the second phase of the exam," Anko replied. "It's the 44th battle training zone. But we call it the Forest of Death.


	4. Chapter 4

Rin, Jiro, and the other 78 ninja who passed the first part of the exam stared in awe at the Forest of Death.

"This place creeps me out," Sakura said.

"It should," Anko replied. "They call it the Forest of Death, and soon you're gonna find out why."

Naruto started to shake his butt around, repeating what Anko said in a mocking way. "Do your worst! You're not gonna scare me away! I can handle anything!"

"So it looks like we have a tough guy," Anko said before throwing a kunai, cutting Naruto's cheek. Anko went behind Naruto. "You tough enough to handle this? You're not afraid, are you? Tough guys like you usually leave their blood all over this forest." A ninja came up behind Anko, giving her kunai back with her tongue.

"Ugh! What a FREAK!" Rin grumbled.

"Seems like everyone's quick-tempered. There must be something in the air. This is gonna be fun!" Anko said. She went back to the front of the forest. "Now before we begin, I have something to hand out to all of you," Anko pulled out some papers. "It's just a standard consent form. Before the test, all of you are going to have to read over this form and then sign it."

"What for?" Naruto asked.

"Some of you may not come out of this forest and I'll have to get your consent to that risk. Otherwise it would be my responsibility!" Anko replied before laughing.

"In other words, if we die, you don't want our blood on your hands, is that right?" Rin asked.

"That's right. Now I'll explain what you'll have to do on this test." Anko gave Naruto the papers to pass out. "Now the first thing you'll need to know about this test is that it'll tag every one of your survival skills. First, I'll give you a description on the terrain of this practice field. The 44th practice area has 44 locked gates. There are rivers and a forest inside."

"Care to point out any other obvious things?" Rin muttered to herself.

"In the center is a locked tower," Anko continued. "It's in this confined area that you'll undergo the survival test. The test consists of anything-goes-battle to get your hands on these scrolls." Anko held up two scrolls.

"Both of them?" Kabuto asked.

"Yes," Anko replied. "You'll be fighting to get both a heaven scroll and an earth scroll. Altogether, 27 teams will be taking part in this test. So half of those teams will be going after the heaven scroll and the other half will be trying to get the earth scroll. I'll hand over one kind of scroll to each team. There'll be an extra scroll, since we have an odd amount of teams."

"Okay, so how do we pass the test?" Sakura asked.

"Your entire squad must bring both a heaven scroll and an earth scroll to the tower," Anko answered.

"That means at the very best, 14 teams will fail," Sakura said. "More if not every team is able to get bot hthe scrolls."

"No one every said it would be easy," Anko said. "Oh, and one more thing. The test has a time limit. You must finish it within five days."

"Five days out there? !" Ino exclaimed.

"WHAT ARE WE SUPPOSED TO DO FOR FOOD? ! ? !" Choji shouted.

"Just look around," Anko replied. "The forest is full of things to eat. There's plenty to feed all of you."

"Yeah but. . ." Kabuto said. "That's not all the forest has plenty of. There are also man-eating beasts and poisonous plants in their."

"Aww man!" Choji moaned.

"Quite down!" Ino told him. "This IS why they call it survival, you know."

"So you're too fat to last five days without being able to shove twenty pounds of food into your fat face," Jiro said. Choiji went bright red.

"Damnit!" Shikamaru said. Choji charged at Jiro, about to throw a punch. Jiro used one hand to grab his arm and the other to push Choji up and over his shoulder. Choji got back up in an instant and charged again. Jiro dodged and pulled out his sword. He swung it and stopped it when it was just centimeters from Choji's neck.

"You're so fat you can't even run fast!" Jiro scoffed. Rin turned to Anko, who was enjoying the scene.

"DO something!" She shouted.

"Aww, c'mon! Let them settle it themselves!" Anko replied, pulling out a chocolate and eating it. Rin let out a low growl and turned to Jiro, who had just kicked Choji to the ground.

"Yeah! This is FUN to watch!" a ninja laughed.

"This is SO embarassing!" Rin moaned. "JIRO! CUT IT OUT!" Jiro ignored her and continued to taunt Choji.

"You're so fat that you're classified as a planet!" Jiro said and he dodged kunai thrown at him.

"I'm warning you! CUT IT OUT!" Rin repeated. Everyone around her could've sworn steam was spewing out of her ears. Choji gripped the kunai tightly and slashed at Jiro. Jiro ducked out of the way, but the kunai had cut off strands of his light brown hair. He elbowed Choji in the stomach, but it didn't do much. Choji brought a fist down on Jiro's head, slamming him onto the ground.

"Ouch!" a ninja said.

"THAT'S gotta hurt!" another agreed. Jiro leaped back.

"Damn! How much do you eat? ! You're fat stomach absorbed the blow!" Jiro exclaimed. "But then again, it's to be expected of a fatass like you!"

"Oh god! They're never gonna stop!" Rin moaned. "Only one thing to do!" A blue aura surrounded her and the ninja around her backed away.

"Holly crap! Chakra's not supposed to be visable!" one exclaimed.

"What in the world is she doing? !" another said.

"Her chakra! It's darker than normal chakra!" Neji exclaimed, using his Byakugan to check her out. "I don't even think it IS chakra!" Rin let out a cry and Worgen rose out of the ground. The ninja let out startle gasps. Only very few knew that it was a Shadow. Worgen went over and slammed Jiro and Choji to the ground.

"Enough of this senseless fighting!" Worgen growled. "Do you want me to kill you? !"

"Get up, you two!" Rin ordered. Jiro and Choji did as they were told. "Save it for the forest!" Worgen vanished in a flash of blue, leaving the other ninja to whisper behind her back. When they quieted down, Anko continued.

"Well, now that THAT'S over, I'll continue. This test also measures your endurance behind enemy lines. This is DESIGNED to be a grueling test! And I'm sure some of you won't be up to the challenge."

"So, um, let's say in the exam, can we quit?" Shikamaru asked.

"Of course not!" Anko replied. "In the middle of a battle, you can't just say 'sorry, I quit'! Well I guess you could, but it'll probably just get you killed!"

"Oh, just great!" Shikamaru grumbled. "This is gonna be a drag!"

"There are also some ways you can get disqualified,"Anko continued. "The first is simple: If all three members of a squad can't make it to the tower with both scrolls by five days. Number two: If a team loses a member, or if a member becomes incapacitated and cannot continue. But most important: None of you, absolutely NONE of you, may look at the contents of the scrolls until you've reached the tower."

"What if it just happens to flap open and you read it?" Naruto asked.

"Let me just put it to you this way. You. Don't. Want. To. Know!" Anko replied, saying each word seperately.

"Oh THAT'S comforting!" Jiro mumbled.

"There will be times when a ninja will be asked to carry secret documents," Anko went on. "The scroll rule is to test your integrity. Okay, we're done. Each team take your Consent form over there and exchange it for your scroll. After that, each team pick a gate and you'll be led inside." Anko then sighed. "Oh, and I have one word of advice: JUST DON'T DIE!"

"What a bitch!" Rin mumbled as she and Jiro got their earth scroll.

"Listen up!" Anko shouted after about a half hour. "Every team has recieved their scroll, so go to your gate and wait there! When the gates open THE TEST IS ON!"

* * *

Gate 16:

"Yahoo!" Kiba shouted. "We rock at survival! There's no way we can lose! Hinata, you'd better be strong for this."

"Right. . ." Hinata replied.

* * *

Gate 27:

"This test may cost us our lives. What a drag!" Shikamaru complained. "But since we have to do it let's jus tgo after Naruto's team first." Choji looked up from checking his bag.

"No, let's go after that bastard Jiro first!" Choji shouted.

"Honestly, Choji, if we do see him, I don't think you should call him that," Ino pointed out. "Being an orphan could have been hard on him."

* * *

Gate 12:

"Believe it! I dare you to bring it on, ninja!" Naruto shouted, punching the air. "I'll just send them back twice as hard!"

"Cha! That's right!" Sakura's inner self shouted.

* * *

Gate 20:

"The time has come to carry out our orders," a Sound ninja said.

* * *

Gate 38: Kabuto's team

* * *

Gate 6:

'Not only do I have to deal with the punks on the other teams, but I'll be with Gaara and he might try to kill me!' Kankuro thought, glancing at Gaara.

* * *

Gate 15:

"We'll target the rookies; they're easy prey!" a Grass ninja said.

"We'll get their from them in no time," another said. "Anything goes, right?"

* * *

Gate 41:

'Guy-sensei! I will make you proud! Just watch! Soon everyone will know the name Rock Lee!' Lee thought, eyes blazing.

* * *

Gate 3:

"If we run into that fatass, THEN you can fight him, got it?" Rin asked.

"Whatever," Jiro mumbled.

* * *

At each gate, the ninja guarding each one unlocked the gate. At 2:30, Anko looked up from her watch.

"Alright! Heads up, you maggots! The second part of the test has begun!" Anko shouted. Every gate shot open as the ninja dashed through them. Rin summoned Worgen and she and Jiro hopped onto her back.

"Let's do this!" Rin shouted as Worgen took off.

* * *

After running for a good three hours, Worgen burst into a clearing and ran into a group of ninja. She skidded to a hault and the three glared at the squad they crashed into. The ninja were getting back up and glared at Rin, Jiro, and Worgen. They were from the Grass village. One had about four umbrellas on his back. Jiro hopped off of Worgen.

"Let's go, Minotaur!" He shouted as Minotaur rose out of the ground. Rin jumped off of Worgen, the bottom of her Shadow reconnecting with her feet.

"Hand over your scroll or we'll mess you up good!" Rin shouted.

"What was that? !" One of the ninja shouted. He weaved a series of hand signs. "Water Style: Water Dragon Jutsu!"

A dragon made of water rose out of the nearby stream.

"Jiro, go after the dragon. Worgen and I will handle these clowns," Rin ordered.

"Got it!" Jiro replied. Minotaur flew at the dragon. "Conquer!"

The dragon roared when it was hit with the blast of electricity before shooting a blast of water at the Shadow. Meanwhile, Rin and Worgen were fighting the other three ninja.

"Tempest!" Rin shouted. Worgen flung the ball of electricity at the ninja, who leaped out of harm's way, but Rin anticipated this. "Ice Spear!" Worgen shot the shards of ice at one of the ninja, who put his arms up to defend himseft. The ice stuck out of his arms and blood dripped to the ground. A roar grabbed Rin's attention. Minotaur had just used Waves of Rage to destroy the dragon. Minotaur used Conquer on the ninja who cast the dragon. That ninja tured his attention to Jiro while Rin fended off the other two. The female weaved a series of hand signs.

"Fire Style: Flame Shower Justu!" She shouted, shooting a ball of fire into the air, which divided into flames that rained down on Rin.

"Slicing Wind!" Rin ordered. The wind blew the fire away, but revealed kunai inside. The kunai cut at Worgen and Rin. "Earthshaker!" Worgen slammed her staff onto the ground. The earth heaved and spiked. One ninja was impaled and killed instantly. Worgen usid Chain Lighting to stun the other long enough for Rin to finish her off with her sword. Rin gasped as she pulled out the kunai that were lodged into her and threw them down. Blood was staining her clothes. Checking the bodies, she found neither of them had the scroll. A cry from Jiro caught her attention.

The ninja had thrown the umbrellas into the air and made a hand sign. Needles rained down on Jiro. Minotaur vanished and Jiro collapsed to the ground. The needles stuck out from all over his body.

"Jiro!" Rin shouted. The ninja turned his attention to her before seeing the dead bodies of his teamates.

"No way. . ." He said before hardening his glare on Rin. "You'll die for that!" He made another hand sign and more needles rained down.

"Ice Wall!" Rin shouted. Worgen made a thick wall of ice appear in front of Rin. The needles bounced uselessly off the shield. The ninja weaved a series of hand signs. This time, Rin recognized it.

"Water Style: Water Dragon Jutsu!" He shouted as another dragon rose out of the river. It rammed itself over and over on the shield. Cracks formed quickly before it shattered. The dragon wrapped itself around Worgen and Rin, keeping them from moving as the ninja walked over to her, a kunai in his hand.

"Corporeal, Worgen!" Rin ordered. An intense white light erupted from Worgen. The dragon was destroyed and Worgen stood there, fur bristling and tail lashing back and forth. She went on all fours and growled. Her black claws began to glow.

"Shining Claws!" Rin shouted. Worgen shot forward, her speed higher now that she had her own body. Her claws went through the ninja, his blood flying everywere. A heaven scroll fell onto the ground as he did. Worgen reverted to normal before vanishing. Rin picked up the scroll and ran over to Jiro. She could see him faintly breathing. She pulled out all the needles and bandaged him up before treating her own wounds. She was glad she happened to have medical supplies stored inside her pack. Wrapping one of his arms around her neck, she walked the rest of the way to the tower. By the time she reached it, Jiro had regained consciousness. Inside, Rin and Jiro opened the scrolls. A puff of smoke appeared and a ninja stood there to congratulate them on passing.

About ten minutes later, Rin and Jiro went into another room. Inside were Kiba, Hinata, and Shino.

"You guys are already done? !" Rin exclaimed. She noticed Akamaru shivering. "What's wrong with the dog."

"Those guys from the sand," Kiba replied. "The red haired dude is big trouble."

"How?" Jiro asked.

"It's really hard to explain, but he's scary, that's for sure," Kiba said.

"Akamaru's been like this for awhile," Hinata explained.

"Looks like things are getting interesting," Rin said. Jiro smiled back.

"Can't wait for when the real fighting starts," he said. "The Chunin exam is getting interesting."


	5. Chapter 5

Inside the tower, all the ninja who passed were in a large room with the Third Hokage and several Jonin. Just as the Third Hokage announced it was time to move on to the third stage of the Chunin Exam, a man named Hayate interrupted him. He turned to the ninja.

"There is something I would like all of you to do before the third exam," Hayate said. "Uhhh. . . we have to have a preliminary exam before we can move on to the real one."

"WHAT? !" Rin exclaimed. "WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY? !"

"PRELIMINARY? !" Shikamaru yelled. "JUST WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY THAT? !"

"Um, excuse me, but what's this preliminary all about?" Sakura asked. "Why can't we just move on to the third exam?"

"Um, well you see, the first and second exams may have been too easy," Hayate explained. "The fact is we never expected so many of you to still be here. According to the rules, a preliminary can be held at any stage to reduce the number of candidates remaining."

"Uh, but is that fair?" Sakura asked.

"It's just at this stage we have to speed things up a bit," Hayate replied. "As Lord Hokage said, a lot of important guests will be watching and we can't afford to waste their time. They've come only to see the best. So if any of you feel you're not in top physical condition, please-" he broke off in a coughing fit.

"Is he sick?" Rin murmured.

'Geez, talk about not being in top physical condition' Jiro thought.

"Sorry about that," Hayate said after he was done. "As I said before, any of you who done feel up for this, now's you're time to say so. The preliminaries will be starting immeadiately."

"COME ON! YOU MEAN RIGHT NOW? !" Kiba shouted.

"We just got done with something that just about cost us our lives!" Rin added.

"We barely survived the last exam. Don't we get a break?" Ino asked.

"Man, what a drag," Shikamaru moaned.

"Hey, when do we eat?" Choji groaned.

"Fatass," Jiro said under his breath.

"Oh, by the way, the winners will be determined by one-on-one sudden death. So like I said, if there's any of you who don't feel up to it, now's the time to raise your hand," Hayate continued. Out of the corner of Rin's eye, she saw Sasuke suddenly grab his left shoulder.

"Looks like Sasuke got injured," Rin said to Jiro.

"Who hasn't?" Jiro replied.

"Well those guys from the Sand for one thing," Rin said. "And that guy with the gourd on his back gives me the creeps." Then she noticed Anko and Kakashi argue.

"What's going on?" Jiro asked.

"She's saying something about a curse mark," Rin replied. "I dunno. Probably doesn't concern us."

Kabuto raised his hand. "Okay, you got me. I'm out."

"Uh, Kabuto Yakushi of the Leaf Village, right?" Hayate asked. "Okay you can go on and step back."

"Gotcha," Kabuto replied before turning around and walking away.

"Kabuto! Hold on a second! You can't quit!" Naruto exclaimed. "I don't get this! What's going on? !"

"Naruto, sorry," Kabuto said, "but my body's just too beat up. I can't hack it. Fact is, every since orientation and that dust-up with the Sound Village, I've had no hearing at all in my left ear. And now to put my life on the line, to fight again without a break, I can't do it."

'Coward' Jiro thought while Rin let out a small snort.

"Kabuto what are you doing? Have you forgotten Orochimaru's orders?" Rin heard one of Kabuto's teamates whisper.

'Orochimaru? Orders?' Rin thought, narrowing her eyes at Kabuto. She saw Kabuto whisper something in response, but couldn't catch it. After that, Kabuto gave Naruto a small wave and left.

"Now then, does anyone else want to quit?" Hayate asked. When no one else raised their hand, Hayate continued. "Now then, we'll begin the preliminary round. This round will consist of one-on-one individual combat. This is not a regular exercise. There are 22 of you remaining, so that means we'll need 11 matches. The survivors of these 11 matches will advance to the third exam. As for the rules, there are none; you will fight until one dies or admits defeat or is rendered physically incapable of continuing the match."

'Wait! People can DIE? !' Jiro thought.

"Naturally, those who are losing are urged to admit defeat to avoid a fatal outcome. Furthermore, as proctor I am giving out some leeway in judging these matches. On occasion, I will intervene if the match seems hopeless to save as many lives as possible. Now it is time to reveal the fate that has been chosen for you," Hayate said. A panel opened to reveal a black screen. "The names of each opponet are chosen completely at random. Before each match, the names will appear on the screen behind me. As there's nothing more to say, let's begin. In a moment, the names of the first two opponets will appear."

The screen flashed yellow before the names began shuffling on the board. It stopped, reading: Yoroi Akado vs. Sasuke Uchiha. Everyon's eyes turned to Sasuke in an instant.

"Okay, those who's names have been drawn, please step forward," Hayate said. Sasuke and one of Kabuto's teamate went forward and faced each other. "You have been chosen for the first match. Yoroi Akado and Sasuke Uchiha. Are there any objections?"

"Not here," Sasuke replied.

"No," Yoroi added.

'Well, I hope this match will be interesting,' Jiro thought.

'Sasuke Uchiha. . . you'd better win!' Rin thought.

"Uh, alright then. Let's begin the first match," Hayate said. "Anyone other than the two candidate will now clear the area and move to the upper level." Rin and Jiro went on the right balcony with Naruto and the other people that went up there. "Then if you're ready, let the match begin!"

"Oh I'm ready," Yoroi said, making a hand sign.

"So am I," Sasuke said. Yoroi lowered his hand, blue glowing around it.

"What in the world! Does he have a Shadow too? !" Rin said.

"It's not covering his body, so I don't know what it is," Jiro replied. Yoroi threw shuriken while Sasuke threw kunai knives. Suddenly, Sasuke stumbled and fell to the ground while Yoroi dodged the kunai. Yoroi brought a fist down and Sasuke dodged, pulling out another kunai and lodging it into the wall, swinging himself so he kicked Yoroi's arm. He knocked Yoroi to the ground and held im down with his legs while grabbing one of his arms.

"Hey, he got him!" Naruto exclaimed. That's when Yoroi twisted his arm around and grabbed Sasuke's shirt. The blue aura returned. Saskue lost his grip and Yoroi got back up. Then he grabbed the top of Sasuke's head, the aura still visable.

"What in the world is going on?" Rin muttered under her breath. Sasuke was grabbing Yoroi's arm and let go, his arms falling to the ground.

"Is he giving up? !" Jiro exclaimed.

"My chakra! What are you doing? !" Sasuke exclaimed.

"You're just noticing it now? !" Yoroi laughed. Sasuke's hand went in a fist and he planted his foot on Yoroi's stomache

"GET OFF!" Sasuke shouted, kicking Yoroi off of him.

"So you've still got some strength left in you, huh?" Yoroi said as he got up. "Impressive, for a Genin anyway. Don't worry, I'll make it short and sweet." He raised his hand in front of him, the aura showing again. He charged at Sasuke as Sasuke got up. He started slashing at Sasuke, once nipping his ear. This made Sasuke go off balance.

"What's the matter? Is that the best you can do? !" Yoroi taunted, leaping upwards as Sasuke swung a kick.

"HEY SASUKE! COME ON WHAT WAS THAT? !" Naruto shouted. Rin and Jiro, standing next ot him and Lee, covered their ears. "YOU CALL YOURSELF AN UCHIHA? ! YOU'RE GONNA LET THIS DUDE WALK ALL OVER YOU? ! COME ON STOP MESSING AROUND AND GET IT IN GEAR!"

"Shut UP!" Rin shouted, pounding Naruto on the head. "You almost blew out my ears!" Sasuke, who was looking at Naruto, suddenly looked like he had an idea. Yoroi was charging again.

"I'll teach you to turn your back on me!" He shouted. "Big mistake! And your last!" Sasuke dodged all the blows Yoroi was throwing before kicking him in the air. Sasuke leaped up in the air and appeared behind him.

"That's MY move!" Lee exclaimed.

"What do you mean 'your move'?" Rin asked, but Lee didn't answer.

"Okay, I'll admit I kinda borrowed that move, but from here on in it's all original," Sasuke said, putting two fingers on Yoroi's back.

"The Dancing Leaf Shadow? !" Yoroi exclaimed.

"Now take this!" Sasuke shouted. Suddenly, he screamed in pain and red marks were spreading over his body. "No not again!"

"What's going on? !" Jiro exclaimed. Suddenly, the marks receeded

"Here we go!" Sasuke said. He began punching and kicking Yoroi several times toward the ground. "I'm not done yet!" Sasuke shouted, kicking Yoroi one more time into the ground. "Lion's Barrage!" Sasuke slid across the ground while Yoroi slumped. Blood was coming out from under Yoroi's mask. Hayatewalked over to Yoroi and crouched down. As he did so, Sasuke got back up, wiping off some blood coming from his mouth.

"I'm declaring this match over. The winner of this preliminary round: Sasuke Uchiha," Hayate said.

"WAY TO GO!" Naruto shouted. Sasuke sat down and has about to fall back when

Kakashi appeared behind him, propping Sasuke up with his knee. Kakashi has a "Make-out" book in his hand.

"That looks like the sort of book Marumaro would read," Rin mumbled, sweatdropping.

"Hmm, not bad," Kakashi said. "Funny, before the Lion's Barrage your technique was very similar to Guy's technique. You must've used your Sharingan to copy it when you fought with Rock Lee that time."

"Hey Sasuke! You won in such an uncool way that you came out looking like you were the one who got beat up!" Naruto shouted.

"Damnit, give me a little break will ya you little. . . oh well," Sasuke sighed.

'Amazing win!' Rin thought

'Not bad, but I don't hink he could beat me,' Jiro thought. Medics carried Yoroi away on a stretcher while one went over to Sasuke.

"Sasuke, you'd better come along with us to the infirmiry so we can treat your injuries," he said.

"I think you're out of your league with this one," Kakashi replied. "I'll look after him. Okay, up you go you're coming with me."

"Before the preliminaries are over? !" Sasuke exclaimed. "But I wanna see who makes it to the finals!"

"Forget it," Kakashi said.

"But-" Sasuke said before Kakashi interrupted him.

"And don't even think of arguing with me. If we leave it any longer, who knows it may be too late. I've already cut you enought slack as it is. Come on let's go." Sasuke got up and left with Kakashi.

"Wonder what's wrong with him," Rin said.

"Hey Sakura, maybe I'm just crazy, but did you see any wierd marks on Sasuke's neck during the fight?" Naruto asked. Rin noticed that Sakura hesitated before replying.

"What mark? I didn't see."

"Okay, let's move onto the second match," Hayate said. The board started up again. When it stopped, it read: Rin vs. Dosu

'My turn, then!' Rin thought. 'Time to show everyone what i'm made of!'

* * *

I know the second match is between Shino and Zaku, but I decided to make Rin's match next. Since Choji's not fighting Dosu, I'm pretty sure you can guess who he is.


	6. Chapter 6

Rin and Dosu went down to the lower level to begin their match.

"If you both are ready, then begin!" Hayate said. Worgen was summoned immediately. About half the ninja were startled, not having gotten used to the Shadow appearing.

"Hey, uh, Jiro was it?" Sakura asked, turning to Jiro. "Do you know what that even is?"

"It's a Shadow," Jiro replied.

"Shadow? Weird name," Naruto said.

"Come to think of it, Kabuto mentioned Shadow Wielders when he showed us those ninja info cards," Sakura said. "He said you were one. Does that mean you also have a Shadow?"

"Look, you'll see later," Jiro sighed.

"You're not exactly too pleasant to be around, you know," Sakura huffed.

"Well, get used to it," Jiro replied. "I'm not going anywhere anytime soon."

"Ya know, you're just as big of a jerk as Sasuke!" Naruto exclaimed, pointing at Jiro. Jiro shot a glare at Naruto.

"You're really starting to piss me off," Jiro growled.

"Naruto knock it off!" Sakura hissed in Naruto's ear. They turned their attention back to the battle. Dosu was swinging his right arm at Rin, who had hopped onto Worgen's back. They were able to dodge, but Worgen covered her ear, letting out a low growl.

"Worgen! What's wrong!" Rin shouted.

"My ear. . ." Worgen moaned. Dosu charged again, this time his fist making contact with Worgen's cheek. She and Rin were thrown backwards into the wall. The two were rubbing their cheeks.

"Looks like if the Shadow gets hurt, Rin gets hurt too," Sakura said.

"Huh? Really?" Naruto asked. "What are they, connected or something?"

"Right," Jiro answered. Naruto, Sakura, Lee, and Guy looked over at him with a bit of surprise.

"You mean to say that's not a Summoning Jutsu that she used?" Guy asked.

"A what?" Jiro asked in a rather rude way. "I don't even know what that is!"

"Never mind," Guy replied.

"Anyway, the Shadow is created from shadow power," Jiro continued. "Only those born with that power can summon a Shadow. However, a few years back, there was an exception. A man named Nene was able to create shadow power artificially."

"What happened to him?" Sakura asked.

"We took care of him," Jiro replied. "Now shut up and quit asking me questions!"

"Well!" Sakura huffed while her inner self said, "Cha! Jiro is dead meat!"

Back to the battle, Hayate was almost hit with Worgen's Tempest attack.

"Watch it!" he sxclaimed.

"Nice move, but it's no good unless it can actually hit me!" Dosu taunted.

"Oh, shut up!" Rin shouted, powering up again, "Blazing Inferno!"

Dosu had a harder time dodging the attack. When he leaped up in the air to dodge the tidal wave of flames, Rin smiled.

"Chain Lightning!" She shouted. The top of Worgen's staff glowed with electricity and she shot it at Dosu. Dosu was hit with the attack and came down hard. He got up a moment later and threw kunai at Rin. Worgen used her staff to block the kunai, but Rin saw paper bombs attached.

"Oh sh-!" She was cut off as the bombs exploded. She and Worgen were sent back, with Rin falling off Worgen's back, the bottom of her Shadow reconnecting with her feet. She wiped away some blood trickling out of her mouth as she got up.

"Is that all?" Dosu asked. "If so, this match is as good as mine!" He charged at the two, lifting up his sleeve to reveal the gadget on his arm again.

"Heh, not even close," Rin smirked. "Corporeal!" The blue aura exploded from her body as her Shadow shot upwards. Dosu was thrown back from the sudden force of the power. Worgen howled as she was surrounded by white light before bursing from it, her staff and robe gone and having legs and a tail. She landed right next to Rin, Rin going on her shoulder. Worgen's now green eyes flashed as she shot forward, claws glowing with power, and went right past Dosu. Dosu collapsed to his knees, blood welling out of four deep gashes left by Worgen's claws. He turned to see Worgen leaping up into the air.

'Rin's won' Jiro thought with a smirk. Worgen roared as her hands were covered in an intense whit light.

"Finish it!" Rin shouted. Worgen shot downwards at an astonishing speed, slamming her fists into Dosu, the gound ripping apart and shockwaves throwing all the ninja to the floor. Worgen reverted to normal and vanished in a blue light. Rin had her hands on her knees, panting from the energy she used up. Hayate walked over to where Dosu was. Dosu was on his back, blood staining his clothes. Hayate looked over at Rin.

"The winner is Rin," he announced.

"Wow!" Sakura exclaimed. "That was amazing!"

"She actually went easier on him than I expected," Jiro said.

"Huh?" was all Sakura said.

"Even though she had her Shadow go into Corporeal form, she didn't use her full power," Jiro replied as Rin was walking up the stairs to where Jiro was.

"Well?" she asked.

"Not bad," Jiro replied with a smirk. Rin's face went furious.

"Not bad? !" she exclaimed, her hands going into fists. "I'd like to see YOU do better!"

"Look, I've seen you do better than that before, trust me," Jiro said.

"Well here's the deal!" Rin shouted. "We're the only two here that can use a Shadow! Fighting anyone without one is boring!"

"Look, the next match is about to he shown, so shut up," Jiro retorted and instantly regretted saying it. Sure enough a moment later, Rin's fist collided with his face. Jiro was thrown back as far as Asuma's team. Jiro had some blood coming out of his mouth, and as he got up he saw Rin storming over to him. She grabbed him by the collar of his dark green jacked-like overtop and threw him back to where they were standing before. When she got back over to him, she crouched down so her violet eyes burned into Jiro's ocean blue ones.

"Talk to me like that one more time and I'll have you put in a hospital, got it?" she hissed.

"Okay, okay! I get it!" Jiro replied. Rin stood back up.

"Good. Now get off your ass and back to your feet," she ordered. Jiro did as he was told, though relunctant, and looked over at the board. The next fight was between Shino Aburame and Zaku Abumi.

"Heh! So which sucker is this?" Zaku laughed.

"Step forward please," Hayate said when the two went down to the lower level. Rin saw that both of Zaku's arms were bandaged and in a sling.

"I think that Shino guy's gonna win," Rin said. "Zaku's not looking too well. Why didn't he quit if both his arms are injured like that?"

"Very good. Now if both of you are ready, begin," Hayate said.

"If you fight me, you won't be able to recover. Forfiet," Shino said.

"Heh, well what do ya know. I have a little movement in one of them," Zaku said, his left arm twitching in the sling. He pulled it out and charged at Shino. "One good arm's enough to beat you!" He threw a punch, which was blocked aside by Shino.

"You couldn't beat me using both your arms," Shino said.

"Cocky, isn't he? Reminds me of you, Jiro," Rin said. Jiro just let out a 'hmph!'

"Yeah, well I've got news for ya!" Zaku was shouting at Shino. Air was going into his hand. "Try this! Slicing Sound Wave!" A blast of air blew Shino away. The dust covered the area when Shino landed.

"Alright, fool! You had enough?" Zaku smirked. Shino got back up. Zaku's eyes widened. "What? ! There's no way!" A sound buzzed in the air. Everyone looked around to see where it was coming from.

"Huh? What's that?" Rin asked.

"It sounds like. . .insects. . ." Jiro replied. "Lots of them." Then everyone's eyes widened when they saw insects crawling all over Shino. They were all coming out of three small holes in his cheek.

"Great now that you've freaked us all out, what happens next?" Zaku asked. He spun around to see more insects coming up from behind him.

"Holy crap! That guy's a freak!" Rin exclaimed.

"And here I thought no one could get any creepier than Marumaro," Jiro added.

"Well, him being a pervert is pretty bad," Rin agreed.

Shino held up a finger with a black insect on it.

"They're a rare species of parasetic beetle that attack their prey in a swarm, eating its chakra," he said. "An army of this size will suck you dry in less than a minute. Your only intelligent option is to forfiet the match. You can't fight two opponets at once. If you use your good arm against me, my friends will swarm you from behind. Conversly, if you use your good arm to keep them at bay, then you'll have me on your blind side. Either way, your defeat will be certain. It's always wise to have an ace in the hole." Shino made a hand sign.

Zaku let out a cry and held his hand out at Shino. "Now you've done it! Now you've made me mad!" he shouted, pulling his other arm out and holding it out at the beetles. Shino lowered his arms. "Like you said yourself: always have an ace in the hole! Right? !"

"I thought his other arm was no good!" Rin exclaimed.

"Looks like he faked it the whole time," Jiro said. Suddenly, chakra shot out of his arms, tearing apart the bandages.

"His arms!" Rin said, her eyes wide. Zaku cries out in pain, grabbing one of them.

"My arms! What's wrong with them? !" he shouted. Lifting up one, he saw beetles were plugging the holes in his palms. Shino went behind him.

"While I was distracting you with my "helpful" advice, I was also sending some of my friends out to plug up those bothersome wind holes in your hands. Both hands just to be sure. You see, having an ace in the hole is good, but having TWO aces are better," Shino said. Zaku swung around, about to punch Shino, but Shino was quicker, smacking Zaku away from him.

When Hayate got over to Zaku, Zaku was crying out in pain.

"I'd say this one. . . has had it," Hayate said. "The winner is Shino Aburame."

"Wait, how'd he do that? Who is he? Find out!" Lee asked Neji. Rin and Jiro glanced over at Neji. Neji took a couple of steps to the side. He made a series of hand signs and the blood vessels around his eyes protruded under his skin.

"I have no idea," Neji replied, looking a little shocked. "I thought he must be using a Summoning Jutsu to get all those insects. But no! They're actually living inside of him!"

"Living inside of him? !" Lee exclaimed.

"You've gotta be joking!" Rin added.

"There's a legend in the Leaf Village of a clan of insect tamers," Guy said.

"Yes I've heard of that clan as well," Neji said. "They say that when a bug master is born, he goes into a sacred pact with the insects. He allows them to nest in his body. In return, they will obey their host's will. They serve him, answering their master's call, fighting his battles and destroying his enemies. I've also heard that they allow them to feed on their chakra as part of the bargain."

"So this guy is one of them? One of those bug tamers?" Lee asked.

"Freaky!" Rin said, shivering a little at the tought of bugs living inside of someone. Zaku was put on a stretcher and taken away. By now, he was unconscious.

"Man! That Shino is coll! Who would've thought with him being so quiet! I can't wait for me to get my shot at him!" Naruto shouted.

"Maybe you should try being quiet like him for a change!" Rin growled, one of her eyes twitching in annoyance.

"Woah, I thought Shino was weird before, but now. . ." Sakura murmured.

"Uh, alright everyone, we're moving right on to the fourth match," Hayate said. A moment later, Kakashi appeared in a puff of smoke behind his team. Rin jumped when he cought her by surprise and almost fell over the railing.

"Damnit! Don't scare me like that!" she hissed.

"Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto exclaimed.

"Hi," was all Kakashi said.

"What do you mean 'hi'? !" Sakura demanded. "Is that all you can say? ! What about-what about Sasuke? ! How is he? !"

"Oh he's fine, sleeping soundly in the infirmiry," Kakasi replied. Naruto gasped when he saw the next match. Misumi Tsurugi vs. Kankuro.

"So cat-man's up next, huh?" Jiro said, resting one arm along the railing while Rin rested both arms on it and rested her head down in them. Kankuro and Kabuto's other teamate went down to the lower level and faced each other.

"I'm not like Yoroi," Misumi said. "I don't get careless. Not even against kids. A piece of advice: once I go into my jutsu, give up. If you do, I promise to make it short and painless."

"Funny. I was about to say the same thing," Kankuro said, taking the bandaged bundle off his back. "Though I can't promise it'll be painless."

"Alright then, if you're ready, let the fourth match begin!" Hayate said.

"Let me do you a favor and end this battle quickly," Kankuro said.

"You can't end it if I end it first!" Misumi replied, shooting forward at Kankuro, swinging a fist at him, which Kankuro blocked. That's when Misumi's arm wrapped itself around Kankuro's. Then he wrapped the rest of himself around Kankuro.

"With all the freaky things we've seen people do since we got here, I don't think we should be too surprised," Rin murmured.

"Woah! What's up with that guy's body? !" Naruto exclaimed excitedly. "That's freaky! I wish I could do that!"

"Oh brother!" Rin moaned.

You're freaky enough as it is," Jiro scoffed. Naruto shot a glare at him. Back to the battle, Kankuro had dropped his bundle.

"I've dislocated all my joints, softening my body," Misumi said. "Then with my chakra, I can control it perfectly."

"With just his chakra?" Sakura said.

"The more you stuggle, the tighter I'll squeeze," Misumi said. "I don't know what you were carrying in that but as long as I have a hold of you, it makes no difference. I could break your neck right now if I wanted to. And I will unless you give up."

"You wanna bet?" Kankuro replied.

"You wanna die?" Misumi said.

"You fool. You're the one who's gonna die here!" Kankuro retorted.

"Uh-oh!" Rin said. A moment later, a snap rang out and Kankuro's head slumped.

"I think he. . . broke his neck!" Lee said.

"Did you just now figure that out?" Jiro replied, leaning up against the wall.

"How are you not disturbed by that? !" Sakura exclaimed.

"Trust me. We've seen plenty of disturbing things," Rin replied, getting up and leaning back against the wall with Jiro. "Probably more than you have."

Back at the battle, pieces of Kankuro's face fell to the ground. Then his head spun around to face Misumi.

"Now, it's my turn so say goodbye!" he said. Brown arms ripped out of his suit and wrapped around Misumi. The rest of the face had fallen off to reveal a puppet's face. In the bandaged bundle, a hand emerged, undoing it and revealing Kankuro. Blue light strings connected to his fingers controlled the puppet.

"He controls it. . .with chakra from his hand," Sakura said.

"STOP! I GIVE!" Misumi shouted.

"If your bones were all crushed, just think how much more flexible you would be," Kankuro said. Then Misumi and the puppet collapsed to the ground.

"Because his opponet is unable to continue, the winner is Kankuro," Hayate said.

"Two against one is hitting below the belt, isn't it?" Naruto said. "I mean, is that thing even fair, Kakashi-sensei?"

"It's not REALLY two against one," Kakashi replied. "It's a puppet, not another ninja."

"Yeah, it's just a Puppet Master Jutsu," Sakura said. "He's controlling the puppet with chakra. It's a ninja tool like a shuriken." The medics were taking Misumi away on a stretcher.

"Now it's time to go on to the fifth battle," Hayate said. The board started up again.

"Well, no matter who's picked, it'll just be two weirdos. This place is full of them!" Naruto said.

"Well you're one to talk," Kakashi said.

"Yup!" Rin added.

"Yeah good point," Sakura said.

"Hey! Give me a break!" Naruto replied. Sakura giggled when just as the board stopped. Kakashi put his hand on her shoulder.

"This isn't a time for laughter," he said, pointing to the board. When she looked at it she gasped. The board read: Sakura Haruno vs. Ino Yamanaka. Sakura turned to look at Ino, who had the same expression as her. The two went down and faced each other.

"I never thought. . .I'd fight you," Ino said. "Or at least I didn't think it would be this soon. Don't expect me to go easy on you."

"Of all the people for Ino to go up against, it WOULD have to be Sakura! What a mess!" Rin heard Shikamaru say.

"Yeah I know," Choji agreed. "I hope Ino will be okay."

"Why are you guys worried?" Rin asked.

"It's a long story, and telling it will be a drag," Shikamaru replied.

"GO SAKURA! YOU CAN DO IT! DON'T LOSE!" Naruto shouted. Rin had to hold back the urge to strangle him.

"Begin," Hayate said. The girls ran at each other, throwing kicks and punches. Then Sakura threw three kunai, Ino catching one and throwing it back at another, blocking it.

"Oh no, I just knew it!" Choji whined.

"Yeah! Sakura's totally blowing Ino out of the water!" Naruto exclaimed.

"What a fool!" Shikamaru said.

"What did you say to me? !" Naruto demanded.

"You wanna make something of it? Go ahead, cause you'll lose," Shikamaru retorted.

"WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE? !" Naruto shouted. Naruto's ear twitched and Rin heard Neji talking.

"That's as good as they can get at hand-to-hand combat?" Neji said.

"It's not because they're girls, Neji," Tenten replied. "It's just because those two are using kickgloves. It doesn't matter if you're a man or woman in battle."

"Uh, using kickgloves?" Naruto asked. The two girls were still going at it. Finally, Ino punched Sakura in the stomach and was about to puch her when her hand opened up and she ended up slapping her. The two looked at each other for a moment. Then Sakura's hand went in a fist.

"Alright, listen up, Ino," Sakura said. "I'm not gonna fight with you over Sasuke."

"Ah, so THAT'S why they hate each other so much," Rin said.

"WHAT DID YOU SAY? !" Ino demanded.

"I'm not the weak, needy girl I used to be and you're not on my radar. You're not even Sasuke's type, Ino. . .PIG!" Sakura shouted.

"Sakura, you'd better watch your step! Do you have any idea who you're mouthing off to? !" Ino demanded. "Don't push your luck with me, little Billboard-Brow!"

"Did you hear all that stuff?" Naruto asked. "Sakura sounded so mean! That's out of line, isn't it? She sure made Ino mad! I've never seen her look so scary!"

"Hmm, yes, but there's more to it than that," Kakashi replied. "Sakura isn't the type of person to do things like needlessly flaunt her own power and hurt people. But she also doesn't like Ino taking pity on her and pull her punches." The two girls took off their forhead protectors and tied them around their heads.

"Wh-what's going on?" Naruto asked.

"What do you mean?" Kakashi asked.

"Why are those two getting so worked up just looking at each other?" Naruto replied.

"I'm sure Jiro could give you a possible answer. He and Shu fight all the time!" Rin laughed. Jiro's face went a little red.

"Well, Naruto, rivalry is a tricky business," Kakashi told him. "Not that I would know." He looked over at Guy, who glanced over at Kakashi. "Hehehe, oh hi there!"

"According to Kluke, Shu and Jiro fought all the time on their first journey. I hadn't joined yet, but what Kluke told me almost made me wish I could have witnessed it all!" Rin said. "Fighting every day, and even going as far as a fistfight while she was unconscious. Of course, Zola had told her what had happened. They still fight every now and then, but not as often."

"He deserved it," Jiro said.

"Oh and guess who got punched while Kluke was in a coma!" Rin laughed.

"Don't tell them!" Jiro growled.

"Jiro!" Rin burst out laughing. "You got punched by the person you alway claim to be stronger than! HAHAHAHA! And three times too!" Jiro went bright red.

"I don't mean to interrupt your laughter, but it looks like they're gonna start fighting again," Kakashi said. The two girls charged at each other, Sakura making a hand sign. A moment later, two shadow clones appeared.

"This isn't just some ninja academy graduation exam!" Ino shouted. "Do you really think with a basic jutsu like that? !" Ino stopped and put her hands in front to protect herself. Sakura made a hand sign and she shot forward faster than before. The two clones vanished and Sakura landed a punch that sent Ino flying.

"I'm not some crybaby anymor! You play with fire and you're gonna get burned!" Sakura shouted. "Let's see your best, Ino!"

"It's not like I needed your invitation, you know," Ino replied, getting up. "I'll give you my best, but your not gonna like it!"

"You're doing awesome Sakura! Awesome!" Naruto shouted.

"Powerful strikes using chakra," Kakashi said. "Top-notch, considering she's a rookie. I've never seen Sakura this good."

"Hold on. You're not saying she's better than me?" Naruto asked.

"Nooo, you're the greatest," Kakashi replied, but Naruto didn't seem to catch the sarcasm. Rin had to try her hardest to hold back laughter. "Sending out her chakra and using it in a well-timed jutsu. I don't think even Sasuke could've done it better. Well, even from the start of her training, she WAS good at chakra control. So this isn't a surprise." The two girls charged at each other again, each throwing a punch. They caught each other's punches and were pushing back and forth. before breaking apart and going backwards, both pulling out shuriken. The shuriken blocked each other.

"They're good," Rin said.

"Whatever," Jiro mumbled.

"Your match really couldn't come too soon, you know," Rin sighed.

* * *

Ten minutes later:

Rin's elbow was resting on the railing, her head in her hand while Jiro had his face buried in his arms which were also on the railing. Anyone would have thought he was asleep.

"How much longer is this gonna go on?" Rin mumbled. "They've been at this FOREVER!"

"Tell me when it's over," Jiro muttered. At that moment, both girls punched each other in the face, sending them flying back. Jiro looked up.

"This isn't how it was supposed to go! How are you evenly matched with me? !" Ino demanded.

"Heh, I guess you're right, Ino. Your obsession with your looks and your hair can't be surpassed," Sakura replied. "I've been training too hard to worry about that stuff."

"You're gonna pay for that!" Ino yelled, pulling out a kunai. "I've had enough of you making fun of me!"

"What an idiot. Ino's falling right into her trap," Shikamaru grumbled. "She's so riled up by Sakura there's no telling what she might do."

"Man I hate it when she's like this," Choji agreed. At that moment, Ino reached up to her ponytail with the kunai and cut it off.

"Heh, you think that'll help?" Sakura smirked.

"THAT'S IT!" Ino shouted, throwing her hair out in front of her. "SEE? ! I DON'T NEED THIS!"

"It's official. She's totally psycho!" Rin said.

"Heh! She really got THAT worked up? !" Jiro smirked.

"Man, and I thought she looked scary before," Naruto said.

"Alright, then!" Ino shouted, making a hand sign, "I'm gonna put an end to this right now! Get ready to tell everyone you lost, Billboard-Brow!"

"Wait!" Shikamaru exclaimed. "Don't tell me she's goint to-"

"Could it be?" Choji murmured while Asuma leaned forward. Ino thrust her hands forward, her thumb, pointer, and middle finger making a circle.

"I knew i recognized it! That's the Mind-Transfer Jutsu sign!" Shikamaru said. Asuma rubbed his head.

"Oh man! That fool!" Asuma agreed.

"Look, I know you're frustrated, but that's pointless!" Sakura said.

"Oh yeah? ! Well, we'll just see about that!" Ino retorted.

"Ninja Art: Mind-Transfer Jutsu," Sakura said. "It's a jutsu that allows the user to take over their opponent's spirit and rest control away from their body for a few minutes by discharging all of their own spiritual energy and striking their oppenent with it. But dispite it's power there are multiple flaws that make this formitable jutsu extremely dangerous. First, the user's spiritual energy can only fly straight and moves at a very slow speed. Second, even if the spiritual energy misses the enemy, it can't return to the user's body for several minutes. And this in battles measured most often in seconds. I should add that while the spiritual energy is gone, the user's body, your body Ino, can't move at all. It'll be little more than a dog."

"So what? !" Ino replied. "I don't care! I won't know unless I try!"

"If you miss, it's all over," Sakura said. "You DO know that, right?" Sakura took off.

"DON'T DO IT!" Shikamaru shouted.

"Ninja Art: Mind-Transfer Jutsu!" A moment later, Sakura stopped and Ino fell to the ground.

"Did it work?" Shikamaru asked.

"Oh boy," Rin said. "I think she missed."

Sakura started laughing. "What an unfortunate choice. . .Ino."

"So it's all over, right?" Shikamaru asked.

"I can't believe she did it," Choji said.

"You're done, Ino," Sakura said, walking towards Ino. Suddenly, she stopped and looked down. Chakra strings were wrapped around her legs. "No way!"

"You fell for it, Sakura!" Ino said. "Ha! I finally caught you!"

"It can't be!" Sakura exclaimed.

"I'm afraid it can be. All those hand signs earlier were just an act to fool you, to trick you into going right into the trap I laid for you, and it worked," Ino said. "Now you can't move at all, can you? You're being held by a special rope made from my hair with my chakra poured into it. Now that I have you trapped, I can take over your body and make you say you're quitting this match!" Ino made the hand sign. "There's no way I'll ever miss with this jutsu now!"

"That little fool," Shikamaru said. "So losing it was just an act too!"

"YOU GOTTA GET OUTTA THERE QUICK!" Naruto shouted. Sakura struggled, but couldn't move.

"Now! Mind-Transfer Jutsu!" Ino shouted. The chakra stopped running through her hair and she slumped.

"Hehehe! That's REALLY unfortunate," Sakura said.

"Oh man! Ino missed!" Choji exclaimed.

"No wait," Shikamaru said.

"Nice one, Sakura!" Naruto exclaimed.

"Not quite!" Sakura said.

"I don't get it! What's with Ino? And with Sakura?" Naruto asked. "I mean, Sakura's acting really strange, don't you think? This is her chance! DO IT, SAKURA! ATTACK!"

"She didn't miss," Rin murmured. "She hit the bulleye."

"The Mind-Transfer Jutsu worked," Kakashi said. "Sakura's done for."

"Th-the Mind-Transfer. . .does that mean Sakura has. . ?" Lee asked.

"Yes," Kakashi replied. "Sakura's spirit has been completely taken over by Ino. Ino's spirit is inside of Sakura now. Well, I'm guessing Ino's goal is probably. . ."

Sakura raised her hand. "Now I, Sakura Haruno, would like to say that I with-" she was interrupted by Naruto.

"NOOO! SAKURA DON'T!" he shouted.

"man that kid's so annoying," Sakura said.

"She's right," Jiro said.

"YOU WORKED SO HARD TO GET HERE, SAKURA! DON'T DISGRACE YOURSELF NOW BY LOSING TO THAT LAME INO GIRL!"

"Yell all you want, there's nothing you can do now," Sakura said. Suddenly, she lowered her hand and began twitching. "What? ! WHAT'S HAPPENING? !" She was grabbing her head and moaning. "Sakura. . .this can't be happening!"

"What's wrong? Are you withdrawing?" Hayate asked. "Well are you or not?" Suddenly, Sakura's head shot up, her face furious.

"NO WAY! I'M NOT WITHDRAWING TODAY OR ANY OTHER DAY!" Sakura shouted.

"What's up with Ino? Something looks wrong!" Shikamaru exclaimed.

"It looks like. . .Sakura's fighting her from the inside!" Rin exclaimed. Sakura's hands came off her head and made a hand sign. Ino's spirit went back to her body.

"How can you have two spirits in you? !" Ino demanded. "Just what are you anyway? !"

"Someone who's just as strong as she is beautiful," Sakura replied. "I mean a girl's gotta be tough if she's gotta survive something like this."

'Two spirits? ! How's that possible? !' Rin thought. The girls got up and charged at each other, fists ready to nail the other. The fists went right past each other and they hit each other in the face, sending them flying and knocking their forhead protectors off. They sat up once before falling back down again.

"Since neither combatant can continue, by double knockout, neither will continue from the fifth match of this preliminary round," Hayate announced. Murmurs of disbelief broke out. When Asuma and Kakashi brought the two back up, their teamates and Lee ran over.

"Hey, Ino!" Shikamaru shouted.

"Sakura! Wake up!" Naruto yelled. "Are-are you okay? !" Kakashi signaled for them to be quiet.

"I don't think treatment will be necessary," Asuma said. "They'll probably just wake up after a little while. But they've certaintly put up a great fight."

"Yeah," Kakashi agreed. "Despite her success with Naruto and Sasuke, I didn't think that she had what it takes to win. She's grown a lot. She might not have done as well as she would have liked, but still, a lot of good happened here. I really feel like it was the right choice to send her to the Chunin Exam."

"It was a great match," Rin said. "Although I think Jiro here almost feel asleep."

"Whatever," Jiro huffed. Rin saw the board start up again and stop. Jiro wasn't paying attention. Rin tapped on his shoulder.

"Time to stop sulking," she said.

"I'm not!" Jiro protested. "And why?" Rin poited at the board. It read: Choji Akimichi vs. Jiro.

* * *

Well, now Choji has a chance at revenge for Jiro calling him a fatass lol. Please review.


	7. Chapter 7

"Aw man!" Choji moaned. "Why him? !"

"What's the problem? I thought you wanted to take him down," Shikamaru said.

"Yeah but, I'm not so sure now," Choji replied.

"Just think about when he had called you a you-know-what," Ino said.

"So you're awake now?" Shikamaru said. Asuma crouched down next to Choji.

"Look Choji, if you win, I'll take you out to an all-you-can-eat barbecue," he said.

"WHAAAAA? !" Choji exclaimed.

"Just think: all the short ribs you can eat," Asuma said.

"That's just cold. Playing on his weak spot," Shikamaru mumbled.

"ALL RIGHT! NOW YOU'RE TALKING! ALL YOU CAN EAT! BRING IT OOOONNNN! ! !" Choji shouted, dashing down the steps to face Jiro, who was already down there.

"Let's go, Jiro!" Rin shouted.

"You can do it Choji!" Shikamaru yelled.

"Fatass!" Ino added. Choji's eyes went white with anger.

"THAT'S IT! I'M GONNA WIN THIS MATCH! IT'LL ONLY TAKE ME TWO SECONDS! THEN I'M GOING AFTER YOU, INO!" Choji shouted. Then he turned to Hayate. "START THE MATCH ALREADY!"

"Uh, begin," Hayate said. Jiro summoned Minotaur and Choji made a hand sign.

"Expansion Jutsu!" Choji said, suddenly expanding in size.

"So that's all? What are you going to do now? Sit on me?" Jiro said.

"Heh! Nice one, Jiro!" Minotaur chuckled.

"YOU ARE SO DEAD!" Choji shouted. He pulled himself into his clothes, chakra blowing out. He leaped into the air, spinning quickly. "Human Boulder!" He rolled at Jiro, who was able to dodge easily and powered up just as Choji spun around.

"Conquer!" he shouted, Minotaur shooting a bolt of lightning at Choji. The attack hit, but Choji didn't slow down and slammed the two into the wall before making another round, about to do the same thing again.

"Don't just stand there, Jiro! DO something!" Rin yelled.

"I know!" Jiro snapped back. He powered up again. "Waves of Rage!" The series of punches managed to stop Choji from getting closer, but he continued to roll. Suddenly, he went up in the air and started coming down. Minotaur put his arms over his face, Choji coming down right on top of them and causing Minotaur to crash on top of Jiro. Choji rolled away and went back to normal in a puff of smoke. Smoke still filled the area where Jiro was.

"That'll teach you to call me a fatass," Choji panted.

"YOU DID IT CHOJI!" Ino shouted.

"YOU'RE NEXT, INO!" Choji reminded her. He didn't notice the shadow moving swiftly along the floor until it was too late. Minotaur shot out of the ground, punching Choji into the wall. The smoke cleared and Jiro went over to Minotaur and Choji, blood running out of his mouth and grasping right arm tightly. He was covered in scrapes and cuts. Choji stood back up in almost the same condition Jiro was.

"A fatass like you doesn't stand a chance against me," Jiro said. Choji made a hand sign and then did Human Boulder again.

"I'M GONNA KILL YOU FOR THAT!" Choji shouted. Jiro powered up.

"Sky Terror!" he yelled. Minotaur's horns glowed and he started spinning. The two collided and they were blasted each other away, both flying into either wall. Jiro got up, Minotaur vanishing in a blue light. Choji, however, was too dizzy to move. When the medics came over to ask if he was okay, all he said was okay, all he said was "I want meat. . ."

"The winner of the fifth match is Jiro," Hayate announced. Asuma and Rin came down, Rin helping Jiro back to the balcony while Asuma helped Choji.

"Even though you lost, I'll still take you out for barbecue," Asuma told Choji when they got back to Ino and Shikamaru.

"Nice job, Jiro," Rin said.

"Hmph! I bet I could beat you!" Naruto huffed.

"Wanna bet on it?" Jiro snarled. Sakura wrapped her arms around Naruto's neck, choking him.

"SHUT UP ALREADY!" Sakura shouted. Naruto's face was blue by the time she released him. The board started up and stopped, reading Tenten vs. Temari. The two girls went down and faced each other.

"Tenten. Temari. Ready yourselves," Hayate said.

"So this is another Genin from the Sand Village," Neji said. "This should be interesting to watch."

At the same time, Lee was shouting, "Go Tenten! You can do it! Show her who is best!"

"Begin!" Hayate said. Tenten hopped back.

"All right, Tenten! Keep her guessing!" Lee shouted.

"Go for it, Tenten! You have the power of youth!" Guy shouted.

"C'mon, Tenten! Send that girl back to her village on a stretcher!" Lee yelled. "We're right behind you all the way, Tenten!"

"Let's hear it! Two, four, six, eight, who do we appreciate? !" Guy yelled. "TENTEN!"

During this time, Naruto was covering his ears while Rin was edging closer to the two screamers, fingers twitching in anticipation of wrapping around their necks.

"How'd I get stuck in the cheering section? !" Naruto grumbled.

"Ugh, and we'll probably have to endure this through Neji's match!" Rin growled, reaching her hands up to strangle Guy. Then she thought better of it and pulled her hands away.

"Not gonna kill them?" Jiro asked.

"I got too much of a headache to kill anyone right now. Let's go to a hot spring when this is all over," Rin replied, letting out a sigh afterwards. She noticed Choji coming over to Jiro.

"Hey Jiro," Choji started, scratching the back of his head. "Uh, nice match."

"Whatever," Jiro sighed. Rin narrowed her eyes and leaned in close to him.

"Jiro, be nicer!" she hissed in his ear.

"Fine! You did well too, considering your size," Jiro said.

"JIRO! THAT'S NOT WHAT I MEANT!" Rin screeched, pounding Jiro to the ground. Choji let out a little chuckle. Rin turned to him. "Sorry about Jiro. He can be outspoken most of the time."

"What are you waiting for? I DID say to begin," Hayate said, turning Rin, Jiro, and Choji's attention back on the battle. Nether girl had made a move.

"Ha! I guess SHE'S waiting for me to make a move," Temari said. "Big mistake, because the first move I make will be the last move you'll see!" Temari took a step forward and Tenten took a step back. "C'mon! I don't want this match to end too quickly, so why don't you make the first move! C'mon, girl, show me what you've got!"

"Okay, if you insist," Tenten replied. "Remember, you asked for it!" Tenten leaped up into the air, throwing four shuriken at Temari. Temari just stood there, but the shuriken just landed next to her.

"I missed her? !" Tenten exclaimed. "There's just no way!"

"What was that? A warm-up exercise? Or maybe you're a little nervous and it's affected your aim? Is that it?" Temari asked. "Perhaps I was expecting to work up a sweat, but forget THAT idea, if this is the best you've got!"

"What is going on? ! How could she have missed? ! It is incredible!" Lee exclaimed.

"It's impossible!" Guy added. "Tenten's aim is PERFECT! She always hits her mark!"

"Not this time she didn't," Neji said.

"She NEVER misses!" Guy continued. "There must have been something that MADE her miss."

"Man, this is embarrasing," Shikamaru moaned. "Sand Village wins again."

"What are you talking about? The match just started!" Naruto protested.

"It's OVER," Shikamaru replied.

"Gimme a break! What makes YOU so smart? !" Naruto replied. "Why don't you explain it to me so I can understand!"

"Ah, forget it! If you can't see it, I'm not gonna waste my breath!" Shikamaru groaned.

"It's obvious like he said. This one's OVER," Choji added.

"I really don't get it. I don't understand these guys at all," Naruto said.

Temari reached up for the fan on her back. Tenten ran around her, pulling out a scroll and leaping up into the air. She started twirlling the scroll around her, moving faster and faster until you couldn't see her. Weapons started raining down on Temari. A guat of wind blew them away. Tenten landed back on the ground.

"No way! She stopped everything I threw!" Tenten exclaimed. "What has she got in that fan of her's!" Temari's fan was open slightly, one purple moon showing.

"Hehe, take a look," Temari said. "This is the first moon. There are two more. When you see all three moons, you'll know you've lost the match."

"Tenten! Do not play your opponent's game!" Lee shouted. "Maintain focus! MAINTAIN FOCUS!"

"Hey, shut up would you? !" Jiro growled. Tenten pulled out two magenta scrolls.

"She's using that already?" Guy asked.

"What's with the two scrolls?" Naruto asked. "What's she planning on doing with them?" Tenten set both scroll on the ground standing up and made a series of hand signs.

"Ha! It won't work, whatever you're planning on doing," Temari said.

"Rising Twin Dragons!" Tenten said. A giant cloud of smoke filled the room. Two plumes of smoke, looking like two dragons, shot upward, spiralling around each other and the two scrolls emerged. Tenten shot up in between them. She summoned weapons and began throwing them at Temari.

"Heh, it doesn't matter how many you throw at me, it's all the same," Temari scoffed, grabbing her fan. The second purple moon appeared. "Moon number two!" Temari swung her fan around, creating a giant gust of wind, blowing all the weapons back. The scrolls and Tenten landed back on the ground.

"I'm not done!" Tenten shouted. She leaped up again, pulling her hands up, string reflecting the light. The string was connected to the weapons, pulling them all up. Tenten swung her arms downward, the weapons shooting at Temari. Temari swung her fan again, blowing the weapons and Tenten away. Tenten slid across the ground and looked up. Temari had her fan behind her, all three moons showing.

"Moon number three," Temari said with a smirk. Tenten got up and Temari pulled her fan in front of her, both vanishing. Tenten started looking around for Temari. "Over here!" Tenten looked behind her. Temari was on her fan, flying overhead.

"It's over," Rin said.

"Looks like it," Jiro replied. Temari landed, a smirk on her face.

"Now it's my turn," Temari said. "Wind Scythe Jutsu!" Temari swung her fan, a funnel of wind hitting Tenten and holding her in the air. Her mouth was open in a silent scream. The wind ripped at her clothes.

"Temari's chakra is controlling the vortex," Neji said. "She fought well, but she'll never escape from that whirlwind. It's over."

The wind ended and Tenten fell, Temari holding out her fan so Tenten landed hard on her back on it.

"Whoa! That girl's really ruthless!" Naruto said.

"Oh, Tenten. . ." Lee murmured.

"Wasn't much of a match," Temari said. "Kinda boring."

"To be able to stop every one of Tenten's attacks like that!" Guy said.

"I still cannot believe it!" Lee said.

"It was impressive alright!" Naruto said.

"That was another win for the Sand Village," Choji said to Shikamaru. "Just like you said it would be."

"Well of course that's why I said it," Shikamaru replied.

"All that's left is Gaara," Rin said.

"I'm betting he'll win too," Jiro added. Hayate walked over to the two girls.

"The winner of the sixth match. . . Temari," he announced. A sinister smile spread over Temari's face.

"WAIT A SECOND!" Lee shouted, leaping over the railing. At the same time, Temari threw Tenten off of her fan. Lee landed just in tim to catch her.

"Hey, nice catch," Temari said, still smiling evily.

"What is wrong with you? !" Lee demanded. "She may have lost, but that is no way to treat an opponent who has done her best!" Temari raised her fan up slightly and slammed it down again.

"Oh beat it!" she replied. "And take that sack of garbage with you!"

"NO LEE!" Neji shouted. Lee started running at Temari.

"Oh boy! And he hasn't even fought yet!" Rin exclaimed. Lee leaped into the air, swinging a kick.

"Leaf Hurricane!" Lee shouted. Temari used her fan to block the kick.

"Ha! Not even close!" Temari laughed. "You know what? You're as dumb as you look!"

"What did you say? !" Lee demanded. Guy leaped down.

"Lee! Stop!" Guy shouted.

"Temari! Forget them. The match is over, so get up here," Gaara demanded. "You already won. You won, so why are you wasting your time with that loser and his ridiculous mentor?"

"Just calm down, Lee," Guy said, resting a hand on Lee's shoulder. Then he turned to the Sand ninja. "A word of warning: You Sand Villagers have no idea what Lee is capable of. Remember, he still hasn't fought yet. So I'd be careful if I were you."

Naruto was glaring at the Sand Villagers when Sakura walked up next to him.

"Don't worry, Naruto! I'm sure you could take them!" she said.

"Sakura? What, you're all right?" Naruto said. "I never thought you'd be back so soon!"

"Never mind me! It's YOU you should be thinking about!" Sakura replied.

"Huh? Me? I don't have any injuries! I haven't even fought yet!" Naruto exclaimed.

"What I'm saying is you don't want to disgrace yourself after you worked so hard to get here," Sakura said. "Think of what Sasuke would say!"

"Oh, oh right," Naruto replied.

"Stay sharp!" Sakura continued before her expression softened. "Oh, thanks by the way. If you hadn't called out when you did, who knows what would have happened. If it hadn't been for you, I might not still be here."

"Yeah, that's probably true," Naruto replied. Sakura turned around, holding up a fist.

"Oh you little. . !" Sakura growled. The board started up again.

"Here we go! Please let it be me! Please let it be me!" Naruto exclaimed.

"No! It is my turn! My turn!" Lee protested.

"Why can't it be both of you next?" Rin growled, her eye twitching. "Honestly, you two are the most annoying people I have ever met!"

The board stopped, reading Shikamaru Nara vs. Kin Tsuchi. Naruto and Lee let out sighs of disappointment. Shikamaru and the last Sound ninja went up to face each other.

"Guess it's me," Shikamaru groaned. Behind him, his teamates were cheering for him.

"C'MON! YOU CAN WIN THIS NO PROBLEM!" Ino shouted. "ALL YOU GOTTA DO IS TELL YOURSELF 'I CANNOT LOSE!'"

"Oh man, this is such a drag," Shikamaru groaned. "I mean, give me a break! I've gotta fight a GIRL?"

"Yeah, you just keep thinking that way, little man," Kin replied.

"Ready? The seventh match between Shikamaru and Kin. Begin!" Hayate said.

"It's all I've got!" Shikamaru said, making a hand sign.

"You're not trying that stupid shadow-thing, are you?" Kin asked.

"SHUT UP!" Shikamaru snapped back. "Ninja Art: Shadow Possession Jutsu." Shikamaru's shadow stretched to Kin.

"Is that all you know? If that's the only trick you've got then this'll be easier than I thought!" Kin said, leaping over the shadow and throwing two needles with bells at Shikamaru, who ducked. The needles stuck into the wall behind him. Shikamaru looked behind him.

"Bells?" he said before facing Kin. "Oh please! Not that old trick! Let me guess. Next you're gonna throw needles with bells and needles without bells at the same time. I'll react to the bells, and while I'm focused on dodging them I won't notice the silent ones coming at me. Am I right? Heh, good luck!"

"You sure talk a lot, don't you?" Kin asked, running at Shikamaru and throwing more needles. While dodging, Shikamaru continued to talk.

"Heh, now I know to dodge all the needles, not just the ones with the bells!"

Behind him, one of the bells rang. Shikamaru spun around.

"What? ! Where? !" he exclaimed. Both bells continued to ring. Thread was connected to them. "Threads? !" Kin smirked, tugging again. "Oh man!"

"Too late!" Kin shouted, throwing two needles at Shikamaru. They stuck in his arm, throwing him back.

"Shikamaru!" Ino exclaimed.

"Well that didn't take long," Naruto said.

"Wow, so easily distracted. It only took two bells to throw his attention away from her," Jiro said.

"Hold on! He's not beaten yet!" Sakura exclaimed. Shikamaru got up, pulling the needles out.

"Okay, now I get a turn!" Shikamaru shouted.

"Sorry, that was your turn," Kin said, pulling the string. Shikamaru dropped to his knees.

"You see, you never ask for whom a bell tolls, because the bell tolls for thee," Kin told Shikamaru. "This bell sends out a peculiar sound vibration that travel to the outer and inner ear and directly to the brain. First comes paralysis, and then you start hallucinating." The bells rang again and SHikamaru covered his ears. "It won't work. You can't block the sound off once it's inside your head. It's useless. You can't move your arm or legs. And even if you could, you wouldn't know which one of us to throw your shadow at."

"'Which one of us'? There's only one of her," Jiro said.

"Unless he's seeing things," Rin added. Kin held up three needles.

"I'm gonna cook you nice and slow over a hot fire," Kin said.

"You think it's that easy, huh?" Shikamaru asked. Kin threw the needle, one sticking itself in Shikamaru's shoulder and causing blood to spread out. Another went into his hand and the last into his leg.

"That was three. Next time I'll throw five," Kin said. "Each time I'll add a couple more until you end up looking like a hedgehog."

"Stop playing games, why don't ya?" Shikamaru replied. "If you're so tough why don't you get it over with? Stop wasting my time!"

"Oh, so you're not a fan of my slw, painful method, huh?" Kin said. "Fine, suit yourself, we'll do it the hard way then. AND painful." Suddenly, she started jerking. "Huh? ! What's wrong? ! Can't move my arm!"

"Heh, looks like my lame shadow jutsu was a sucess after all," Shikamaru said, getting up.

"But you haven't thrown any shadows!" Kin protested, looking down. "I made sure of it!"

"You really still don't see it?" Shikamaru asked.

"What do you mean? !" Kin asked.

"Look at that thread you're holding. Don't you find it strang that it would even cast a shadow that size?" Shikamaru replied. The thin shadow beneath the string warped and expanded. "Of course you didn't notice it because you were concentrating on other things, like KILLING ME!"

"The shadow's spreading out around me and I didn't even see it soming!" Kin exclaimed.

"Right! I stretched that shadow out along the line of that thread and followed it all the way back. Now I'm attached to you!" Shikamaru said, pointing at her, Kin doing the same, resisting.

"And now we mirror each other's movements. So what? A cute trick but what do you gain by it?" Kin asked.

"Man you're annoying, so shut up and watch," Shikamaru replied. He reached down, pulling out a shuriken. Kin did the same.

"You must be insane! If you throw that shuriken at me, you'll be attacking yourself!" Kin exclaimed.

"Makes it kinda interesting, doesn't it?" Shikamaru asked.

"You wouldn't! You couldn't!" Kin protested.

"Yeah, like a game of chicken! Let's see who ducks FIRST!" Shikamaru replied, throwing the shuriken at the last word, Kin doing the same.

"You're crazy!" Kin exclaimed. Shikamaru ducked backwards, Kin doing the same. However, Kin hit her head on the wall directly behind her, knocking her out instantly.

"And that's what I call Using Your Head," Shikamaru said. He stood back up. "The wise Shinobi carefully scouts the physical layout of the battlefield. And never loses sight of his position on it. That was her problem. I made sure she was so busy focusing on me, she didn't notice the wall inches behind her head. So when we both dodged backwards, BANG! Now who's hearing bells?"

"The winner of the seventh match: Shikamaru Nara," Hayate announced.

"ATTA BOY SHIKAMARU!" Ino yelled.

"Boy, that's gotta be a major cuncussion she recieved," Rin muttered.

"C'mon! Me next, me next, me!" Lee said.

"Even a good-for-nothing lazy bum won this match! When am I gonna get my turn? !" Naruto grumbled.

"Alright, moving onto the eighth match," Hayate said, the board starting up again.

"This year's rookies look like they could be quite a challenge," Neji said, glancing at Rin and Jiro. The board stopped, reading Naruto Uzumaki vs. Kiba Inuzuka.

"ALRIGHT! IT'S HERE, IT'S HERE AT LAST! THE MOMENT I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR! FINALLY I'VE GOT A CHANCE TO SHOW WHAT I'VE GOT!" Naruto shouted.

"Hey look at that! It's me against the kid! Hey, Akamaru, I think we've just won the lottery!" Rin heard Kiba shout. Lee turned around, looking depressed.

"I will die of old age before I get my turn," he moaned. "I just want a chance to show Sakura what I am made of. All I want is a chance! Is that too much to ask? !" Kakashi glanced over a Guy. After a moment, Guy gave the thumbs-up, flashing his teeth while Kakashi sweatdropped.

"Good luck Naruto! Do your best!" Sakura said.

"You know it, Sakura!" Naruto replied.

"You're gonna need it," Jiro said under his breath. Then he turned to Rin. "I bet you 100 gold pieces that the loser's gonna goof up badly somewhere in the fight."

"Only 100? Make it 200 and you've got yourself a bet!" Rin replied.

"You got it!" Jiro agreed. Naruto and Kiba went down to the arena.

"Now the eighth match," Hayate said. "Naruto Uzumaki and Kiba Inuzuka."

"I've been waiting forever for this! Sorry, Kiba, if I blow you away!" Naruto exclaimed. Kiba went white-eyed and pointed at Naruto.

"Rrrgh! That's what I was about to say, only not so politely!" Kiba shouted. "Right, Akamaru?" Akamaru barked in agreement.

"Oh yeah? ! Well talking's easy! Let's see what you've got at the end of the match!" Naruto shouted, pointing at Kiba.

"Rgh! Little squirt!" Kiba growled. He set Akamaru down onto the ground.

"Wait a second! Are you kidding me? ! What's the puppy doing here? !" Naruto demanded. "He's just gonna get in the way!"

"Deal with it! I never go into battle without Akamaru!" Kiba retorted. Akamaru barked, fur bristling.

"C'mon! Isn't that against the rules or something?" Naruto aske Hayate.

"No," Hayate replied. "Like Shino's bugs, they are a part of him. He is within the rules."

"Whatever! Fine with me! I do my best work with a handicap!" Naruto said.

"Ha! We'll just see about that!" Kiba replied. "Akamaru, you stay right here and leave all of this to me. I've got it." Akamaru let out a disappointed growl.

"YOU CAN'T LOSE TO THIS JERK!" Sakura shouted.

"Aw man! Kiba's so lucky!" Choji said.

"Look, I'm feeling sorry for you, so I'm gonna finish this with one shot, 'K?"

"Yeah, is that right? You're even dumber than you look if you think you could beat me!" Naruto replied.

"You sure talk tough for such a little squirt!" Kiba retorted.

"When you're ready, you can begin," Hayate said. Kiba crouched down, making a hand sign. Chakra was visable from his body. He went on all fours.

"Here I come," Kiba said. He shot forward, elbowing Naruto in the stomach and sending him flying. "This little guy's gonna be out for awhile." Kiba turned to Hayate. "You can call the match."

"Thought as much," Shikamaru said with a smirk.

"Yeah I though Kiba my be too much for him, but that was fast!" Ino agreed.

"Oh Naruto! That was embarassing!" Lee murmured. Kiba turned around and started walking away. However, Naruto got up. Kibe turned, shock on his face.

"What? ! No way!" Kiba exclaimed.

"Don't ever underestimate me!" Naruto shouted.

"ATTA BOY, NARUTO!" Sakura shouted.

"Yeah, more tough talk! Look at yourself in a mirror! You're a mess!" Kiba shouted.

"Ha! I just wanted to see what you've got! Frankly, you hit like an old lady!" Naruto retorted. "You'd have a better chance of winning if you set that puppy in to fight with you!"

"You're gonna regret that!" Kiba growled. "Come on, Akamaru!" The two ran at Naruto, Kiba pulling out three smoke bombs and throwing them at Naruto. Naruto was surrounded by smoke a moment later. Rin and the others couldn't see what was happening, but a moment later, Naruto dashed out of the smoke, right where Akamaru was waiting. Akamaru leaped into the air, biting Naruto's arm, and pushing him back int othe smoke.

"The best part and I can't even see it!" Shikamaru grumbled. Kiba leaped out of the smoke. A moment later, the smoke cleared and Naruto was laying on his side. Akamaru sat right next to him, wagging his tail and barking.

"Yeah! This fight is over!" Kiba shouted.

"He lost. . . to a puppy," Rin mumbled. Akamaru ran over to Kiba.

"Good doggy! Way to g-" Kiba cut off when Akamaru leaped up and bit Kiba's arm. "Hey, Akamaru! What are you doing? !"

"Surprise! Gotcha!" Akamaru said. Kiba's eyes widened. A puff of smoke came from Akamaru. When it cleared, it was Naruto biting Kiba's arm.

"You used a Transformation Jutsu!" Kiba exclaimed. "You little! GET OFF! LET GO OF ME!" Kiba knocked Naruto away. Naruto's face was a dark blue. He started spitting.

"YOU SMELL EVEN WORSE THAN THE DOG!" Naruto shouted.

"What you do with him? ! Where is he? !" Kiba demanded.

"He's right here!" A Shadow Clone of Naruto replied, holding up Akamaru by his forelegs. Akamaru was wimpering.

"How did you. . ? !" Kiba exclaimed.

"Woah! Is that really Naruto?" Ino asked. "Who would've though Naruto would be a match for Kiba!"

"To balance a Transformation Jutsu and a Clone Jutsu at the same time! There's no way he should be able to do that!" Shikamaru agreed.

"THAT WAS AMAZING, NARUTO!" Sakura shouted.

"What do you know? Got a little stronger I see," Kiba said with a sinister smile. "But not nearly stron enough cause now I'm gonna get serious!"

"Oh really? Well that's good cause I want to SERIOUSLY knock you out right now!" Naruto replied.

"I don't know what happened, but this isn't the Naruto we used to know," Shikamaru said. Kiba took a deep breath.

"Naruto, if I were you I'd let Akamaru go right now," Kiba said, flicking a black pill at Akamaru, who ate it. Akamaru began to growl, his fur turning red and bristling. He let out a roar and kicked the clone, making it vanish in a puff of smoke and leapt away.

"What the heck happened? ! What was that thing you fed him? !" Naruto demanded. "How come all his fur turned red? !"

"Are you sure you want to stick around to find out?" Kiba asked, eating a black pill. "LET'S GO AKAMARU!" Kiba squatted down and made a hand sign, Akamaru hopping on his back. "Beast Mimickry! Akamaru transformed into Kiba.

"Man-Beast Clones!" both shouted.

"He's got a crazy look in his eyes. WAIT A SECOND HE TOOK SOMETHING!" Naruto shouted. "NO FAIR! THAT'S CHEATING! HE OUGHT TO BE DISQUALLIFIED!"

"Food pills," Hayate said. "Just another tool. They're allowed."

"AW! YOU'RE NO HELP AT ALL!" Naruto exclaimed, pointing at Hayate.

"I don't get it. What was that stuff he ate?" Shikamaru asked.

"Those are food pills," Choji replied.

"They're what?" Ino asked.

"You WOULD know that," Jiro muttered.

"It's something the military developed. It's an energy booster that's so powerful that the troops who take it can fight for three days and nights without a break. But after extended battling, it can result in a high level of anxiety and almost total exhaustion," Choji continued. "Right now, Kiba and Akamaru's chakra is at least double of what it used to be.

"Let's finish this!" Kiba growled. "On All Fours Jutsu!" The two came down, about to claw Naruto, who was able to leap backwards just in time. One then slashed at Naruto, who dodged. The other ran across the wall and slashed down at Naruto, who dodged again.

"It's bad news for Naruto," Asuma said. "Kiba already fights like a wild beast. His chakra is intense enough even without enhancement. The idea of DOUBLING his chakra, well they're the perfect weapon for Kiba."

The two continued to slash at Naruto, who was franticly dodging. Naruto then leaped into the air.

"Now I've got you!" One of them said. Both leaped into the air and started spinning. "Ultimate Taijutsu! Fang Over Fang!" The two collided and sent Naruto flying.

Naruto fell to the floor, blood coming out from underneath his forhead protector.

"Told you I was gonna get serious," Kiba said.

"I will. . . I will. . . become Hokage. . ." Naruto groaned.

"And how're you gonna do that? By laying flat on your face?" Kiba asked. "I got news for you! I'm gonna be Hokage!" Kiba started laughing hard. "Come on! Do you really believe a weakling like you could be Hokage? ! You must be weak in the head!"

Naruto struggled to his feet. "Sorry, but you can forget about being Hokage," Naruto said. "Because I'm the top dog around here!"

"You're kidding! You're a real glutton for punishment, are ya?" Kiba replied. "Okay, it's your funeral. I'm gonna make sure you don't get up again! Let's go Akamaru!" The two dashed at Naruto.

"How many times are you gonna use that move?" Naruto asked.

"Just once more! Kiba shouted, him and Akamaru spinning. Naruto leaped in the air, but the two got him in midair. Kiba and Akamaru skidded away from where Naruto landed. Naruto got back up, glancing back and forth at both of them. Kiba threw smoke bombs at Naruto.

"Fang Over Fang!" Kiba shouted, him and Akamaru going in and out of the smoke. Then the two leaped away. The smaoke cleared up and Naruto got up.

"Ha! It looks like you've run out of gas, kid!" Kiba said. (A/N: NOT TRUE AS WILL BE PROVEN LATER! lol!)

"Yeah, bring it on, Dog-Breath! Cause no matter how many clones of yourself you make, I'll still have enough to beat you!" Naruto retorted.

"Heh! You always have a snappy comeback! Let's see you come back from this!" Kiba replied. "Ready Akamaru? !"

"Yeah!" Akamaru replied. The two charged again, Kiba throwing smaoke boms and doing Fang Over Fang.

"What's going on? I can't see!" Sakura said.

"Transform!" Rin heard Naruto shout just as the two went in for the final attack. Suddenly, both stopped.

"Very clever," Kakashi said.

"What do you mean?" Sakura asked.

"You'll see," Kakashi replied.

"Amazing!" Rin exclaimed. Down in the arena, three Kibas were there. It was impossible to tell which was Kiba, which was Akamaru, and which was Naruto.

"Good one, Naruto!" Sakura shouted. "Brilliant! He made himself look like Kiba, so Kiba doesn't know which one to go after! He's got to be careful, cause the one he attacks could be Akamaru!"

"And meanwhile, Naruto is safe attacking either one!" Lee exclaimed. "Brilliant idea! WOOHOO!"

"Okay, so I see you've gotten better at the Transformation Jutsu," Kiba said. "But you forgot one little thing! I'll admit you look just like me and that threw me for a minute, but I still know which one is you! You can't hide from me!" Kiba shouted as he threw a punch at the nearest copy, "Wanna know why? !" He punched the copy to the ground. "I can smell ya, kid. There's just no getting past our sense of smell. Tough luck."

"What is he then, a dog?" Jiro asked.

"Haha! Game's over!" Kiba laughed. A puff of smoke came from the copy and a beat-up Akamaru lay on his side. Kiba spun around, swinging his arm. "So it's YOU!" He knocked the other copy away. However, after the puff of smoke, it was also Akamaru.

"WHAT? !" Kiba exclaimed. The Akamaru behind Kiba got up. A puff of smoke and Naruto stood in its place, charging at Kiba, kicking Kiba away. Kiba landed next to Akamaru. When Kiba sat up, he glanced over at his dog, his hand twitching.

"Who ever though the Naruto I used to know could be that smart," Ino said.

"The smart Shinobi is careful of how he uses his Jutsu. Otherwise, it's gonna come back to bite them on the butt, dummy!" Naruto said.

"Hey, that's my line. . . sort of," Kakashi said. Kiba bit his hand until blood ran down it, seeming to try to cool off his temper. He then pulled out eight shuriken, four in each hand.

"Heh, so are you finally getting serious, Kiba?" Naruto asked, making a hand sign. "Good, cause that means I can unveil something special I've been saving! My super-secret killer move!"

"You're what? You've gotta be kidding me!" Kiba replied.

"Huh? Where'd he come up with that?" Sakura asked.

"You can leave it to Naruto to have a trick up his sleeve! Well done!" Lee said.

"I have a feeling that with this move, I'll win the bet," Jiro said.

"Hah! Super-secret killer move!" Kiba said in a mocking voice. "Get outta here! It's a bluff!"

"Yeah, well try me and find out!" Naruto dared. Kiba ran at him.

"Whatever he's got in mind, I'll just make sure he doesn't get a chance to try it!" Kiba shouted, throwing the kunai. Naruto started dodging for his life and Kiba made a hand sign.

"Beast Mimickry! All Fours Jutsu!" Kiba shouted. He elbowed Naruto away before coming up beside him. "Well, what're ya waiting for?" Kiba punched Naruto into the wall. Naruto was laying on his stomach.

"ON YOUR FEET, NARUTO!" Sakura shouted. Naruto got up.

"He's coming at me so fast I don't have a chance to build up my chakra!" Naruto exclaimed. Kiba ran at him on all fours again.

"Hey what's wrong? You just gonna stand there?" Kiba asked, knocking Naruto away.

"Man he's fast!" Choji exclaimed.

"Too fast! Naruto can't make and hand signs!" Ino added.

"Marumaro and Saber-Tiger are faster, though, so it's not that impressive," Rin said.

Kiba leaped into the air, raking his clawed hands downward. They caught on Naruto's right arm. Naruto grabbed Kiba's arm with his left.

"Take. . . THIS!" Naruto shouted, throwing Kiba. Kiba landed on all fours. Naruto's arm was dripping blood and he was breathing heavily. "I will be Hokage! I will never lose to you, or anyone here!" Naruto made his hand sign again.

"Dream on, kid! How can you beat me when you can't keep up with me? !" Kiba shouted. He shot forward and leaped into the air, slashing Naruto's shoulder. Then he ran up from behind Naruto. "Hey kid! Heads up!" Kiba slashed at Naruto's back, knocking Naruto away.

"NARUTO!" Sakura shouted.

"Ha! You wanted me to get serious so I got serious!" Kiba said. "You get it now? You were just kidding yourself! You never even had a chance!" Kiba's face turned to shock when he saw Naruto getting up again.

"I. . . absolutely. . . will not. . .lose!" Naruto said, turning to Kiba. "Guess that means YOU'RE out of luck!"

"I'll give him one thing, the kid never gives up," Choji said. Ino nodded in agreement.

"Naruto's like a bad cold. Kiba just can't seem to shake him off," Shikamaru said.

"Atta boy! Look at him! He's starting to crack! You've got him right where you want him!" Sakura shouted.

"Now Naruto! Go for it!" Lee added.

"Hey! What are you waiting for? ! You getting tired? !" Naruto shouted.

"You're a scrappy little squirt, I'll give you that," Kiba replied.

"That's enough of this! Time to unveil my new technique!" Naruto said, making the hand sign.

"Go for it!" Kiba shouted, running at Naruto. He went behind Naruto. "I gotcha now!" Kiba was just about to strike when Naruto farted in his face. Kiba sniffed a couple times before recoiling, holding his nose and crying out. Lee, Sakura, Ino, Shikamaru, and Rin went white-eyed, jaws dropping. Hinata just looked completely embarassed.

"Who said Naruto had run out of gas?" Kakashi asked.

"Pay up," Jiro said, holding out a hand. "200 gold was the bet."

"Fine, fine! After this is over, I'll pay you!" Rin moaned.

"Grrgh! Nasty!" Kiba was shouting, shaking his head around, still covering his face.

"Was that his new supr-secret killer move?" Kakashi asked. "I wonder. Well, he always was unpredictable."

"Yeah, and that unpredictibality just cost me 200 gold!" Rin growled. She was gripping the railing so tightly that it started to bend.

"WHATEVER WORKS, NARUTO!" Sakura shouted, sounding slightly embarassed. "YOU SLOWED HIM DOWN AT LEAST!"

"I wish I could say I planned it," Naruto replied, making the hand sign again, "but anyway, the time has come to unleash my new technique!" He changed the hand sign. "Shadow Clone Jutsu!" Four clones appeared and ran at Kiba, surrounding him. "You've kicked me around so far! Now it's payback time!" Kiba took his hands away from his face and looked around.

"Well?" he asked. One punched him while another went on that Naruto's back and leaped into the air while the other clones swarmed Kiba, kicking him into the air.

"NA. . . RU. . . TO!" the clones each said as they delivered their kicks. The real Naruto came down on Kiba with a kick to the head, slamming him to the ground.

"Uzumaki Barrage!" Naruto shouted. Kiba didn't get up again.

"Hmm, a new technique? I'd say he picked that up from watching Sasuke's match," Kakashi said. "At least he changed the name. . . sort of."

The Shadow Clones vanished, leaving Naruto. Hayate walked over and looked at Kiba before turning to Naruto, clearing his throat.

"The winner is Naruto Uzumaki," Hayate said.

"WOOHOO!" Lee shouted.

"THAT'S MY TEAMATE! WAY TO GO!" Sakura shouted.

"Unbelievable!" Shikamaru exclaimed. "Who would've thought he could beat Kiba? !"

"A major upset," Choji said.

"Well since he won, I don't owe you anything," Rin said.

"THAT wasn't part of the bet. Didn't matter if he won or lost, if he did something totally stupid, which he did, you owed me 200 gold," Jiro replied.

"Dammit!" Rin growled. As the medics took Kiba and Akamaru away, Narut oran up the stairs. Rin saw him and Hinata talking, Hinata giving Naruto something. When Naruto came back over, he was rubbing the contents onto his wounds, the wounds closing immediately.

"Woah! This stuff Hinata gave me works FAST!" Naruto exclaimed. He closed the box and held it out to Sakura. "Here, Sakura! You wanna try it?"

"Huh? !" was all Sakura said.

"Alright, we'll now pick the names for the next match," Hayate said. The board started again.

"Only four left. Lee, Hinata, Neji, and Gaara," Rin said. The board stopped, reading Hinata Hyuga vs. Neji Hyuga.

* * *

Okay, I'm gonna stop there for now cause my head's hurting and it's 9:38 at night. Plus, It'll take another two hours to do this while watching the episodes at the same time.


	8. Chapter 8

Sorry for taking so long to update. I've gotten hooked on playing Tales of Vesperia. The two rounds left, I don't feel like writing them, since you pretty much know what happened anyway.

* * *

Neji won his match against Hinata, and the last match between Gaara and Rock Lee was won by Garra.

'Over at last,' Rin thought as Hayate cleared his throat.

"And with that match, the third exam preliminary rounds are finished." Everyone went down to the lower level and Hayate continued to talk. "I commend all those who have advanced to the finals of the Chunin Exam. Well, there's one person missing, but still congratulations." The Third Hokage stepped forward.

"And now," he said, "I will give you the explanation for the final round. In the final rounds, each of you will put your battle skills on display. You'll demonstrate the power you've achieved in your respective diciplines. Accordingly, the final rounds will commence one month from now."

"Wait, we're not gonna do it right here and now?" Naruto asked.

"Ugh, why should we?" Rin muttered.

"This is to provide a suitable period of preparation," the Hokage repied.

"What do you mean by that?" Neji asked.

"Simply this. In addition to announcing the conclusion of the preliminary matches to each country's leaders, we must also have time to prepare and distribute the summons for the final selection. Not to mention that you examinees need time to prepare for something that is this important."

"Look, I don't really get what you're trying to say," Kankuro said. "What's the point of this?"

"I mean that to know your adversaries and to prepare yourselves you need time," the Hokage replied. "Even though up to this point all the battles have been real battles, as I'm sure you all could tell, they were conducted on the premise that you were fighting an unknown enemy. But that's no longer the case now that you've battled each other. So in order to make the finals fair and just, we're giving you this month. Each of you must face the oppertunity to practice hard and learn some new tricks. Because by now everyone knows your techniques, using your old, tired tricks is a sure way to lose in the finals. And remember to get some rest as well. Now with all of that behind us, I'd like to begin winding things up. But before we can bring this to an end, first there is one more important matter to take care of for the final round."

'Hurry it up already!' Jiro thought, getting impatient.

'This old geezer sure seems to like to hear himself talk a lot,' Rin thought.

"Let's get on with it!" Naruto shouted. "I mean come on, how long do we have to wait till we can start training?!"

"In a calm, orderly fashion, all of you are going to take one slip of paper from the box that Anko is holding," the Hokage replied.

"Everyone just stay where you are I'll come to you," Anko said, walking toward them with the box. She stopped in front of Naruto. "Just take one." Naruto reached in and pulled out a slip. Anko then moved onto Rin, then Jiro, and the rest.

"Good, now everyone has one," Ibiki said when Anko finished. "Going from left to right, tell me the number on your slip of paper."

"Number one, of course," Naruto replied.

"I've got ten," Rin said.

"Nine," Jiro said.

"Seven," Temari said.

"Five," Kankuro said.

"Three," Gaara said.

"Eight," Shikamaru said.

"Two," Neji said.

"Six," Shino finished.

"And that means Sasuke will be number four," the Hokage said. Ibiki started writing on his clipboard."Right, very good. Now I'm going to tell you about how the final selection tournament is going to work."

"HEEEEEEHHHH?!" Naruto exclaimed.

"_Selection_ tournament?! You've gotta be kidding!" Rin shouted before thinking 'If it's decided how I think it'll be, then that means I'll have to fight... Oh, hell...'

"Is that what the numbers were for?!" Shikamaru demanded. "Drawing lots?!"

"Ibiki, you may reveal which ninja have been paired up," the Hokage said.

"Yes sir," Ibiki replied, turning the clipboard around to reveal a bracket for the tournament.

Naruto vs. Neji

Gaara vs. Sasuke

Kankuro vs. Shino

Temari vs. Shikamaru

Jiro vs. Rin

'Dammit, looks like I was right after all...' Rin thought. 'This will be a challenging first round.'

'You have got to be kidding me!' Jiro thought. 'Me against Rin?! She's scary enough even when she's not fighting!'

"May I ask you a question?" Shikamaru asked, raising his hand.

"You may," the Hokage replied.

"Alright, if this is a tournament, does that mean there's only gonna be one winner? I mean, only one of us is going to be able to become a Chunin?"

"Actually, it's quite the contrary." the Hokage answered. "There are going to be several judges for the final rounds, including myself, the Shinobi leaders, and the Kazekage, and various lords from the other countries that will be assigning your missions to you. Through this tournament, these judges will be able to make a thorough evalluation lf your abilities. They will then decide whether any or all of you possess the qualities required of a Chunin. Even if someone loses the first round, they could still become a Chunin.

"So there's a chance that every one of us who competes in the final selection could become Chunin?" Temari asked.

"Correct, but conversly there's also a chance that none of you will be chosen," the Hokage replied. "The advantage in fighting any more rounds in the tournament is getting more chances to display your talents in front of the judges who will decide your fate. Does that answer your question, Shikamaru?"

'Heh, I'm so gonna kick Jiro's ass,' Rin thought, smirking and casting a sidelong glance at Jiro.

"I thank you all for your patience," the Hokage continued. "Now let us adjourn until next month."

* * *

"So let me get this straight," Worgen said, crossing her arms. "The first round is against Jiro and Minotaur?"

"That's right," Rin replied. Since the other day when the preliminaries ended, Rin and Jiro agreed to stay apart for the month to train.

"Heh, can't wait to get back at Minotaur for that punch the last time we sparred," Worgen smirked, flashing her teeth in a devilish grin. Rin sweatdropped. Sometimes she wondered just what exactly goes on in Worgen's head.

* * *

"WE'RE WHAT?!" Minotaur exclaimed. "You can't be serious!"

"Sorry, but we're fighting those two," Jiro replied.

"Dammit, Worgen's totally gonna smoke me for the last time," Minotaur groaned.

"I'm sure she's gotten over it by now," Jiro said.

"Wolf-chick can really hold a grudge, and you know that well," Minotaur retorted.

"The hell... Wolf-chick...?" Jiro said, narrowing his eyes. Minotaur blushed a little.

"Well, um... you see..." Minotaur stammered.

"You think Worgen's hot, don't you?" Jiro said with a hint of disbelief. "You'd better not let that get in the way of the fight."

"Now hold on!" Minotaur shouted. "I never said she was sexy or anything! Why the hell would you think that?!"

"You ogle at her..." Jiro replied, sweatdropping. Minotaur and Jiro began arguing back and forth about who thinks who's sexy and who needs a life and whether or not Shadows could actually date and whether or not Marumaro's worse with this.

* * *

"Thanks for helping," Rin told the ninja in charge of the messenger birds. One week had passed now. She invited Shu and the others to come and watch the match.

_Dear Shu, Kluke, Bouquet, Andropov, Logi, Delphinium, and Marumaro I guess,_

_Next month, Jiro and I will be fighting in the first round of a tournament being held in the Leaf Village. You all should come and watch me kick Jiro and Minotaur's asses. It'll be an enjoyable match, I'm sure. Just fly the mechat over here as soon as possible. I've enclosed how to get to the Leaf Village from Nirvana. Hope to see (most) of you there!_

_Sincerely,_

_Rin_

_P.S. Marumaro, if you so much as flip up one skirt or touch a single boob, I swear I will flay you alive!_

Once the bird flew off with Rin's letter in it's pack on it's back, Rin went down the stairs and bumped into Sakura, who was holding two white flowers in her hands. Both girls fell to the ground. Ino, who was walking with Sakura, looked down at them.

"Sorry!" Rin quickly appologized. She helped Sakura back to her feet, stil clutching the flowers.

"Oh no, it's okay," Sakura replied. "I was just on my way to the hospital with Ino to see Sasuke and Lee."

"By the way, how is Lee anyway?" Rin asked. "I heard some gossip that his injuries were severe."

Sakura looked down at her feet, her eyes filled with saddness. Ino spoke for her. "Apparently, his injuries from his fight with Gaara were so severe that he can never be a Shinobi again."

"Oh..." Rin whispered. "I wonder how he's handling it. Well, say hi to him for me."

"Okay," Ino and Sakura replied. They waved goodbye and went off. Rin looked back once at the two girls heading off.

'Lee can't fight anymore... Just what the hell did Gaara do to him?!' Rin wondered. She started walking off toward one of the training areas, but most of her enthusiasm had already been sucked away by the news Ino gave her.

* * *

"Waves of Rage!" Jiro shouted. Minotaur let loose a series of punches that reduced a gigantic boulder to pebbles.

"J-Jiro..." Minotaur panted. "I-I'm at my limit... Let's take five..."

"We can't stop now!" Jiro shouted.

"Jiro... we've been spending... the last two weeks... training nonstop..." Minotaur managed to say. He fell back, his chest heaving as he tried to regain his strength. Jiro suddenly collapsed as well, his shadow power drained almost entirely.

"D-dammit...!" Jiro gritted out.

"Heh... looks like your at your limit too..." Minotaur chuckled.

"Shut up..." Jiro retorted. A sound above him caught his attention. He glanced up at the sky, seeing a yellow object flying overhead. 'Wait... isn't that a mechat? What the hell are they doing here?!' Jiro thought. He saw Rin running toward the mechat, Worgen right behind her. She passed right by Jiro without hardly noticing him.

"Hey, you guys! Down here!" Rin shouted, waving her arms. The mechat began decending and landed in front of them. Shu's head appeared over the railing, along with Bouquet's. Rin saw Shu starting to laugh at something behind her.

"Go to hell..." Rin heard a voice behind her growl. She turned and noticed for the first time that Jiro was there and couldn't help but laugh at the state he was in. Jiro grumbled angrily and hauled himself to his feet, Minotaur vanishing.

Shu leapt over the railing, along with Marumaro. Rin groaned. She had secret hopes they would leave him behind. The hatch opened and Kluke, Bouquet, Logi, Andropov, and Delphinium walked out, Deathroy floating right beside her as always.

"Heh, you know Jiro, you should really take a break before you keel over for good," Delphinium smirked.

"Keel over! Keel over!"

"Oh, just shut the hell up already!" Jiro retorted. Delphinium just let out a small chuckle, seeing as though she was getting under Jiro's skin. "Why are you all here anyway?!"

"I invited them," Rin replied. She glanced at Marumaro, who hid behind Shu. She figured he got her threat.

"Can't wait to see you get your ass handed to you, Jiro!" Shu chuckled. Jiro glared and took a step toward the smaller boy before Rin stopped him.

"Jiro, you know the runt's not worth it," Rin reminded him.

"You sounded a little like Zola there," Bouquet said. Shu, Jiro, Kluke, and Marumaro suddenly looked gloomy.

"Bouquet... haven't you ever heard of tact?" Kluke mumbled. Rin facepalmed.

"Oh give me a goddammed break!" Rin exclaimed. "That was all _years _ago!"

"Easy for you to say, you never met her, maro," Marumaro said. Rin just sighed.

"Whatever... Well now onto the real reason I asked all of you to come here."

"Wait, the "real" reason?" Logi asked.

"Training alone doesn't produce much results, and Jiro and I can't exactly spar right now. So that leaves you guys," Rin replied.

"Wait what?!" Shu exclaimed, hands going into fists. "You mean you only asked us over to be your punching bags?! What the hell?!"

"I never said you guys were just gonna be standing still while we beat the crap out of you guys," Rin replied. "Use your Shadows."

"Oh," Shu calmed down. "Well, that'll make it more interesting."

"I'll spar with Marumaro first," Rin said. "Just to keep him in my sights."

"Maro..." Marumaro moaned, walking relunctantly over to Rin.

"I'll go against Delphinium," Jiro said.

"Oh really. So you're pretty much asking me on a date then, huh?" Dlphinium teased.

"Don't you ever shut up?!" Jiro demanded.

"The rest of us will find an inn to stay at, I guess," Logi said. He headed out, the others following. Kluke went back in the mechat.

"I'm going to find a better place to land this," Kluke called out as she started it. As she took off, Rin and Jiro went off to train.

* * *

"Blitz Claw!"

"Shining Claws!"

The two attacks collided, sending Worgen and Saber-Tiger back. The two Shadows got back up and charged at each other again. They locked hands, each trying to pin the other down. Saber-Tiger was winning, but Worgen readjusted her grip and started pushing back, snarling in Saber-Tiger's face. At last, Worgen had Saber-Tiger pinned to the ground and sank her teeth into his shoulder. Saber-Tiger roared and Marumaro let out a cry of pain, gripping his shoulder. Saber-Tiger broke the hand lock and punched Worgen in the face, knocking her away.

"Heh, good job, but let's see if you can't beat Worgen in speed," Rin said, leaping onto Worgen's back.

"Saber-Tiger is the fastest!" Marumaro retorted, doing the same.

"We'll see if you can beat me!" Saber-Tiger growled.

"Then bring it!" In an instant, the two Shadows seemed to vanish along with their wielders. However, in the air, attacks colliding with each other could be seen. Saber-Tiger's fireball attack took down a tree while Worgen's Tempest attack obliterated a boulder.

Suddenly, the two were visible high up, two dark figures in the sky. The shapes got bigger until it could be seen that Worgen was holding Saber-Tiger, slamming him into the ground with such force that the earth cracked and flew up. Marumaro tumbled to the ground as Saber-Tiger vanished in a blue light.

"Heh, I win," Rin smirked.

* * *

Jiro raised his sword just in time to block Delphinium's. A little ways away, Minotaur and Chimera were exchanging blows. Minotaur aimed at Chimera's face, but Chimera ducked and swung his fist in an uppercut, catching Minotaur under the chin and sending him in the air. Delphinium saw this and broke her sword lock with Jiro, powering up.

"Graviton Ball!" She shouted. Chimera released the ball of dark energy, hitting Minotaur square in the chest and causing him to crash into the trees.

"Conquer!" Jiro said. Minotaur got up and shot the lightning at Chimera. Chimera pulled his wings in front of him, blocking the attack.

"You know, Jiro, you were better when you still didn't have your Shadow revived," Delphinium commented.

"What?!" Jiro replied, clenching his teeth. Delphinium narrowed her eyes.

"What I mean is that you spent two years training to be better than Shadow Wielders after losing Minotaur." There was no hint of teasing or sarcasm in her voice this time. "You challenged me nonstop because I still had my Hydra Shadow. This was your way of testing your strength. But now that you have your Shadow back, you seem to be getting weaker. You're not as focused as you used to be. You used to come so close to beating me in those two years, but now you can hardly scratch Deathroy's Chimera.

"My Chimera! My Chimera!" Deathroy copied, crossing his tiny green arms.

"We'll see about that!" Jiro retorted. "Sky Terror!" As Minotaur started charging at Chimers, horns glowing, Chimera released a blast of violet fire from his mouth. Jiro put more power into the attack. Minotaur went right through the flames and collided with Chimera's chest, his horns getting caught in the two golden rings and preventing Chimera from knocking Minotaur away. Chimera screeched in pain and Delphinium grunted as Chimera was knocked to the ground. Chimera vanished and Minotaur went back behind Jiro.

"You've gotten better, Jiro, but..." Delphinium started saying, an evil grin spreading across her face. In an instant, Jiro felt something knock him down, catching him by surprise and causing Minotaur to vanish. As he got back onto his feet, a high-pitched wail sounded behind him and Hydra's beetle-like legs were at his throat.

"Dammit!" Jiro growled, glaring at Delphinium.

"You lose again, Jiro," Delphinium said. The legs were pulled away from Jiro's neck and Hydra vanished. "That was too easy."

"Too easy! Too easy!"

* * *

"Slicing Wind!"

Kluke was ready for the oncoming attack. "Feather Protect!" The blue barrier produced by Phoenix rendered Slicing Wind useless. Worgen let out a low growl of frustration. That was the fifth failed attack in a row. As soon as the barrier went down, Kluke prepared her attack. "Eternal Breath!"

"Blazing Inferno!" Rin shouted. The two fire attacks collided, causing and explosion to light up the clearing. There were only three days left until the final rounds. She'd faced everyone except Kluke, who was proving to be a bit of a challenge.

"Time for our new attack! Infinity Beak!" Kluke shouted. (A/N: This attack is from Tales of Vesperia. It's Griffin's most annoying attack of all, in my oppinion, especially when he's in Overlimit. I may have this attack and others from Tales of Vesperia in this fanfic and Elements of Chaos.)

Phoenix shot forward and began to rapidly peck at Worgen. Worgen held up her arms to protect herself from the assault. She bared her teeth in both pain and frustration that Phoenix was attacking too quickly for Worgen to counter attack. All she could do right now was endure.

Finally, Worgen saw her chance when Phoenix slowed down slightly. Worgen thrust her hands out, grabbing Phoenix by the neck and beak. Phoenix's voice was muffled by Worgen holding her beak closed. Worgen threw Phoenix to the ground, making Kluke let out a cry of pain. Just as Phoenix tried getting back up, Worgen had her pinned down, her claws at Phoenix's neck.

"Sorry, Kluke, you lose," Rin said with a smirk.

* * *

"Well, the big day's tomorrow," Bouquet said. She and the other girls were in their room at the inn.

"Yeah, I'm gonna show no mercy to Jiro," Rin replied, leaning up against the wall and crossing her arms.

"I doubt he'll show any mercy either," Delphinium said. "He has no manners when it comes to women."

"I don't know if he'd even consider you a woman," Rin said. Delphinium glared at her but didn't reply.

"I just finished sparring against Jiro yesterday," Bouquet said. "He's got some new attacks."

"Yeah well he's not the only one," Rin replied.

"I swear it's like you have an endless supply of attacks," Kluke commented, sweatdropping.

"Well, I kinda, well, upgraded Ice Spear," Rin said.

"What do you mean"upgraded"?" Kluke asked.

"I altered it some. It's now called Freeze Lancer," Rin replied. (A/N: Freeze Lancer is an altered arte from Tales of Vesperia)

"So it's more powerful now?" Bouquet guessed.

"That's right. I developed it fighting Shu," Rin answered. "It's quicker, more powerful, and a lot more merciless."

"Geez, like you aren't already merciless as it is..." Bouquet mumbled, sweatdropping. Rin shot her a glare.

"Care to repeat that?" Rin growled.

"N-no, no!" Bouquet stammered.

"At any rate, we ought to be going to bed now," Kluke said.

"Yeah. I want to be rested up for tomorrow," Rin agreed. "Can't wait to beat Jiro into next week!"

* * *

Whew! Glad I'm done with this chapter! Next update may take awhile. Please remember to review!


	9. Chapter 9

It was the day of the tournament. Shu and the others found seats next to Sakura and Ino. Rin and Jiro were already down in the arena with the other competitors. Only Naruto and Sasuke were missing. However, screaming sounded and Naruto came flying through the entrance. Everyone turned around to stare.

'What the hell happened to him?' Rin wondered.

'What an idiot,' Jiro thought.

"Something about him reminds me of Shu..." Kluke mumbled, sweatdropping.

"Naruto...!" Sakura exclaimed.

"Yeah, but he's totally late... of course," Ino said, narrowing her eyes. Shikamaru was helping Naruto to his feet.

"Oh man, what a drag..." he moaned.

"Guys! You won't believe this, but there's a huge herd of stampeding bulls coming this way!" Naruto suddenly shouted.

"What?" Shikamaru asked, looking doubtful. "Yeah, you're right I don't believe it."

"I'm serious! There must be a million of them coming right this... way..." Naruto trailed off, looking around.

'A million bulls? Riiiiight...' Rin thought, narrowing her eyes at the blond idiot.

"Hey wait, where's Sasuke?" Naruto asked.

"He hasn't shown up yet," Shikamaru replied.

"Hey, knock it off," the third round proctor said. "Quit your fidgiting, you two. Stand up straight and present yourselves proudly to the spectators." At that moment, all the people watching cheered.

"Welcome all, and our deepest thanks for coming here to the Village Hidden in the Leaves for this year's Chunin selection!" the Hokage announced. "We have come to the final competition between the ten candidates who made it through the preliminaries! We ask that no one leaves until all the matches have been completed! Now everyone enjoy!"

"I wonder why we can't leave," Logi said.

"Maybe it's just a rule they have every year," Kluke suggested.

"I'm not so sure. Look around you. There's some high security going on," Logi replied, glancing behind him. Kluke followed his gaze. There was a man in a black cloak with a mask at the top of the stairs. There was another a little ways away.

"Something must be going on..." Kluke murmured.

"Yeah, and I've got a bad feeling about it," Logi agreed.

Down in the arena, Naruto raised his hand. "Uh, question?"

"What is it?" the proctor asked.

"Well, I as wondering what'll happen to Sasuke. I mean, if he doesn't show up."

"If a candidate is not here in the arena at the time his name is called, he forfeits the match," the proctor answered. Naruto looked behind him at the entrance as if expecting Sasuke to be walking in.

"All right, listen up," the proctor continued. "The terrain's different, but the rules are the same as before. And that is that there are no rules. The match continues until one candidate admits defeat or dies. That being said, if I determine that a match is over I can step in and stop it at any time. And no arguements permitted. Understood? These are the opponents of the first match: Naruto Uzumaki and Neji Hyuga. Those two stay. The rest of you go to the waiting area." Everyone except Naruto and Neji went up the stairs leading up to a balcony overlooking the arena.

* * *

The match was won by Naruto, surprising the spectators. The next round between Sasuke and Gaara was postponed until Sasuke could arrive. Then it was the match between Shino and Kankuro, but Kankuro withdrew before the match even started. Temari and Shikamaru were next. As soon as it looked like Shikamaru was going to win when he finally got Temari in his Shadow Possession Jutsu, he forfeited, saying he was almost out of chakra.

"Now for the next match between Jiro and Rin," the proctor announced. The two leaped over the railing and faced each other.

"I really never thought we'd actually be fighting like this," Rin said.

"Same here," Jiro replied.

"You may begin!" the proctor said. Worgen and Minotaur were summoned as he said that.

"You're going down hard," Worgen growled.

"Oh hell..." Minotaur muttered. Worgen lashed out at him, but Minotaur ducked out of the way and threw a punch, which Worgen blocked with her staff. She smacked Minotaur away while Rin readied her attack.

"Freeze Lancer!" She shouted. Worgen held her staff out and a blue-white circle appeared in front of it. Spears of ice shot out of it.

"Conquer!" Jiro yelled. The lightning shattered most of the ice, but a few cut Minotaur's arms and shoulders. "Thunder Blade!"

A gigantic lighting bolt struck down on Worgen, causing her to howl in pain. When it was over, she attacked again while Rin pulled out her sword.

"Meteor Storm!" Fireballs appeared all around Worgen and launched themselves at Minotaur. At the same time, Rin lunged at Jiro, swinging her sword. Jiro blocked it with his, but Minotaur was knocked back by the fireballs. Rin shoved Jiro back and swung again, nipping is arm this time as he dodged. The two Shadows were wrestling each other to the ground, each delivering a few punches before being flipped and pinned to the ground. Worgen finally had a good hold on Minotaur and hoisted him up before chucking him into a wall. At the same time, Rin landed a punch in Jiro's stomach, making him double over, and kicked him away.

"Just give up already," Rin sighed. "It'll save you from a lot more pain."

"Like hell I'm giving up now!" Jiro retorted, getting back up on his feet.

"So stubborn..." Rin muttered before readying her attack. "Tempest!"

However, as Worgen charged up the ball of lightning, Minotaur shot out at her, delivering a punch that sent Worgen and Rin back, both landing on their backs, cancelling the attack. Jiro sprang at Rin, bringing his sword down. Rin rolled out of the way and swung her leg out, sweeping Jiro off his feet. Worgen was lashing out at Minotaur.

"Man, those two are really going at it," Shu murmured, sweatdropping. "I don't think I've ever seen them get like that when sparring."

"It doesn't look like they're going all-out yet," Kluke said. "I wonder if they will sometime during this battle, though."

"I don't know. I guess we'll just have to wait and see," Logi said.

"This is certainly an interesting battle," someone nearby said. The group turned there heads.

"Guy-sensei! Lee!" Sakura exclaimed.

"Those two have potential for being excellent Shinobi," Guy said. "Both of them are indeed strong. I can see that this will be an exciting match."

Back at the fight, Minotaur had grabbed Worgen and slammed her into the wall while Jiro landed a kick on the side of Rin's head. Both of them got back up, rage evident in their faces.

"Those two have no idea how to treat a lady...!" Rin growled.

"Time to teach them some manners," Worgen agreed. Worgen shot up into the air, going into Corporeal. Rin went up on her shoulder, sheathing her sword.

"Get them!" Rin shouted. Worgen shot out at Minotaur, who was about to try punching her. However, in a split second Worgen was behind him, kicking Minotaur into a wall. Before he could recover, Worgen slammed a fist into him, driving Minotaur further into the wall. Jiro cried out in pain before powering up. Minotaur grabbed Worgen and struggled to push her away. He let go and punched her in the face, sending her back.

"Corporeal!" Jiro shouted. In an instant, Minotaur was in Corporeal form as well, Jiro hopping onto his shoulder.

"Oh man, they're really getting serious!" Bouquet exclaimed.

"Someone's going down hard..."Andropov muttered.

"Heh, I'm putting my bet on Rin," Delphinium said with a smirk.

Worgen was raking at Minotaur's chest right now. Right when she was going to claw him again, Minotaur kicked her in the jaw. Worgen recoiled, grasping her mouth, and was instantly in front of Minotaur, throwing an uppercut to his chin and sending him into the air. Worgen shot up past Minotaur and came back down, her fists glowing in a white light. The attack caused a crater to appear in the arena. Worgen stepped back a bit to stare at the dust-filled area Minotaur was in.

A moment later, lightning came down in all directions, striking Worgen. She let out an agonized howl and stumbled back. Minotaur came charging out of the dust, smashing Worgen into the wall. In a desperate attempt, Worgen managed to rake her claws along Minotaur's face, making him stagger back, clutching the wound. Worgen took that opportunity to kick Minotaur down.

"Inverno!" Rin shouted. Minotaur felt something beneath him and managed to scramble away just as ice spiked up from where he just was moments ago. Both Shadows reverted to normal, most of their energy spent. Despite this, Rin and Jiro charged at each other again, swords clashing as they fought to push the other back. Worgen and Minotaur exchanged blows, though they weren't nearly as strong as before.

"Looks like they're reaching their limits," Kluke said.

"The battle's going to end soon," Shu agreed.

Eventually, both Shadows threw a punch at each other. The fists missed each other and instead collided with both of their faces, knocking them down. Both Shadows vanished, leaving Rin and Jiro to finish the match. Jiro's shoulder was bleeding heavily while blood ran down Rin's face from a cut on her forhead.

"Time to end this..." Rin panted. She shot forward, ramming the butt of her sword into Jiro's stomach and leaped up, kicking Jiro on the side of his head, sending him to the ground. He didn't get back up. His eyes were shut tightly in pain and his breathing was hard and ragged. The proctor walked over and glanced down at Jiro before turning to Rin.

"Because her opponent can no longer continue, the winner is Rin."

Rin went over to Jiro and wrapped his arm around her neck, lifting him up and helping him to the stands.

"Damn, you were pretty hard to beat," Rin said with a smirk. "Now let's go see the others."

* * *

Once Rin had helped Jiro to Shu and the others, she and Kluke began treating his injuries before Rin tended to her own. Down in the arena, Sasuke and Kakashi had shown up and now Sasuke and Gaara were fighting. Soon, Naruto and Shikamaru had come down to where the group was, Naruto telling Kakashi to stop the match. When Kakashi told Naruto that there was no need, Sasuke had used a new technique, Chidori, to penetrate Gaara's ultimate defence. A moment later, Gaara was screaming that he was bleeding and Sasuke struggled to pull his arm free. When he did, a monsterous hand was holding onto it and let go, retracting into the shield of sand. A roar sounded and the shield collapsed, leaving Gaara holding his bleeding shoulder.

It was then that Rin's vision was filled with feathers and she collapsed, asleep, like just about everyone else. Sakura, Kakashi, Guy, and several other ninja had released genjutsu. An explosion erupted where the Hokage and Kazekage were.

"Lord Hokage!" Guy exclaimed.

"Leave it to me!" an ANBU shouted. He and the other ANBU dashed over to the Hokage, cutting down the two Sand ninja that attacked them. The Kazekage leaped out of the smoke with the Hokage and four Sound ninja. The Sound ninja created a purple barrier surrounding them and the Hokage and Kazekage. An ANBU ran into it and burst into flames, screaming as he fell off the roof.

"A barrier..." Guy said.

"They outwitted the ANBU black ops... and the ANBU are supposed to be the best," Kakashi added. As he and Guy started going down the steps, an ANBU appeared in front of them.

"Why are you here?!" Guy demanded. "Lord Hokage's in danger!" The ANBU made a hand sign and four Sound ninja joined him.

"What a nuisance..." Kakashi muttered.

"An enemy disguised as an ANBU black op. So he was using genjutsu," Guy said.

"Yes, there's no mistake," Kakashi said.

Down in the arena, Kankuro and Temari helped Gaara away with Sasuke chasing after them. The proctor was holding off Baki.

"Quite a lot of them, huh?" Kakashi asked.

"We've been careless," Guy said. "And now even Lord Hokage... Kakashi! Look there, inside the barrier!" Kakashi turned his head to the barrier.

"Orochimaru..." he muttered.

"Orochimaru!" Sakura exclaimed, standing up. Then she turned to the arena. "Hey, Sasuke...!" She realized in shock that he and the Sand Genin were gone. She looked up to see two Sound ninja leap at her, but Kakashi got in the way and took them down.

"Sakura," Kakashi said, bending over and facing her from in between his legs with an oddly cheerful look. "Just stay here while I trim the number of enemies down to size." Leaf and Sound ninja began fighting overhead. As Kakashi and Guy took down enemies, they backed into each other.

"Nicely done, but I'm still worried about Lord Hokage," Guy said.

"Leave that to the ANBU black ops," Kakashi replied. "We have enough to handle here. Besides, Lord Hokage isn't just some pushover you know."

"Yeah, but..." Guy protested.

"Just remember, Guy. He IS the Hokage," Kakashi reminded him. "He can handle it."

As they took out more enemies, Kakashi landed in front of Sakura.

"Sakura!" he said. Sakura looked up. "It was worth teaching you genjutsu during survival training for the Genin exam. You truly have a talent for it. Release the genjutsu and wake Naruto, Shikamaru, Rin, and Jiro. Naruto will be delighted getting a mission after such a long time and this will be Rin and Jiro's first one."

"What kind of mission?" Sakura asked.

"You'll have to be careful on this one," Kakashi replied. "It's the first A-rank assignment since the Land of Waves."

"But sensei! What will you be doing with this battle going on?" Sakura asked. "Why send us off on some mission?!"

"Sasuke's chasing Gaara and the other Sand ninja," Kakashi replied. "Sakura, release genjutsu and wake those four and follow Sasuke." Kakashi took out a kunai and cut his thumb with it.

"But shouldn't we wake Ino and Choji and go in a larger group?" Sakura asked.

"No time," Kakashi replied. "I suspect many Sand and Sound shinobi may have already infultrated this village." He performed a Summoning Jutsu and a little brown pug with a black muzzle and wearing a blue shirt and a forhead protector appeared.

"Huh?" Sakura said, staring at the puppy.

"Pakkun, you will track down Sasuke by scent," Kakashi ordered.

"Wait, seriously, one of our members is going to be a puppy?!" Sakura exclaimed. Pakkun leaped over to her and got up in her face.

"All right, listen little girl," Pakkun said, his voice equal to a man's. "Don't go around saying I'm just some cute puppy."

'I never said cute,' Sakura thought, a little freaked out.

"Okay, it's time," Kakashi said. "Sakura, go release the genjutsu." Sakura crawled over and released genjutsu first on Rin, then Jiro and Naruto. When she went to do it on Shikamaru, she hesitated and saw one of his eyes twitch. Sakura narrowed her eyes at him.

"Shikamaru... You were... This whole time...?" Sakura muttered. Pakkun padded over and chomped down on Shikamaru's leg. About three seconds passed before Shikamaru sat up, screaming, and shaking his leg wildly trying to throw Pakkun off. Sakura made a fist.

"You released genjutsu too, you faker!" Sakura growled, pointing accusingly at him. "Why were you pretending to be asleep this whole time?!"

Shikamaru grabbed Pakkun and started pinching the edges of his lips together, Pakkun's teeth still bared. "I didn't want to get involved. Just give me a break! I couldn't care less about Sasuke!" Shikamaru tugged one of Pakkun's floppy jowls and released it, the cheek snapping back. In response, Pakkun bit down on Shikamaru's hand. Shikamaru held it up, with Pakkun still on it, screaming. Rin couldn't help but snicker. Naruto gazed around at the fighting going on.

"W-what is all of this...?" he asked. A Sound ninja appeared behind him, starting to swing a kunai.

"Behind you!"Sakura shouted. Guy appeared a moment later, punching the ninja through the wall behind them, leaving a giant hole. Kakashi appeared right next to him.

"Now I'll explain the mission," Kakashi said. "As soon as I do, go through that opening. First: track down Sasuke and stop him. Then find a safe location and await furthur orders."

"Did something happen to Sasuke?" Naruto asked. Sakura crawled over to him.

"I'll tell you what happened on the way," Sakura replied. She grabbed him and leaped through the hole. "Now let's go!"

"Why me?" Shikamaru moaned. "What a drag."

"Listen, whiner," Pakkun said. "Look if this mission is a success, as a reward I'll let you touch my paw or my pads. So there's no reason to sulk."

"What?" Shikamaru asked. Pakkun held up a paw.

"Come on, they're really soft," he replied.

"They're...what...?" Shikamaru asked. Pakkun lowered his paw and head, looking sad.

"No one ever wants to shake..." he whined before flashing his paw in Shikamaru's face again. "BUT MY PAWS ARE SO SOFT AT SUPPERRRRRR!" Shikamaru just looked at him wierdly. "Forget it, let's go." He grabbed Shikamaru's hand and clamped down on it, dragging him through the hole with Shikamaru yelling. Kakashi looked over at Rin and Jiro.

"You two are joining them," he said.

"Wait, what the hell's going on here?!" Rin shouted.

"Sakura can explain, now hurry!" Kakashi replied. Rin and Jiro exchanged glances before going out the hole.


End file.
